Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday exuded confidence that his party is going to certainly win Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, while in Rajasthan, it is going to see a “very close fight” and in Telangana the party will “probably win”.
Assembly polls are scheduled to take place in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram later this year.
Speaking at a conclave organised by the Pratidin Media Network of Assam, the Congress MP from Wayanad said on the party’s chances, “I would say, right now, we are probably winning Telangana, we are certainly winning Madhya Pradesh, we are certainly winning Chhattisgarh. Rajasthan, we are very close, and we think we will be able to win. That is what it is looking like, and by the way, that is also what the BJP internally is saying.”
Gandhi also referred to the row over BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri’s derogatory remarks against BSP leader Danish Ali in the Parliament during a debate on the Chandrayaan-3 mission on Thursday, alleging that the BJP indulges in such tactics to distract from the demand for a caste census.
“What you are seeing today, this gentlemen Mr. Bidhuri and then suddenly Mr. Nishikant Dubey, all this is the BJP trying to distract from the idea of the caste census. They know that the caste census is a fundamental thing that the people of India want and they don’t want to have that discussion,” the former Congress chief said.
“Every time we bring a point on the table, they use this type of stuff to distract us and we have learnt now how to deal with it,” he said.
He asserted that the opposition is adapting and working together and the BJP is “in for a surprise” in the Lok Sabha elections that are scheduled next year.
“What we did in Karnataka is we gave a clear vision for the state, ‘this is the social security programme that we are going to set up for you’ and then we control the narrative.
“If you look at the Telangana polls, we are controlling the narrative, the BJP is not even in the narrative, it is gone. The BJP has been decimated and it is over in Telangana,” Gandhi said.
Gandhi claimed that the Congress is controlling the narrative in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in the run up to the polls there.
“If you speak to people in Rajasthan on what is the issue in terms of anti-incumbency, they will tell you they like the government,” he said, adding, “We are adapting in a situation where the BJP controls the media. Don’t think the opposition is not capable of adapting, we are adapting, we are working together, we are 60 per cent of India’s population. BJP is in for a surprise in 2024 (Lok Sabha polls).”
The Congress leader also said that the idea of ‘One Nation, One Poll’ was one of “BJP’s distraction strategies”.
The main issues in India are concentration of wealth, huge inequality in wealth, massive unemployment, huge unfairness towards the lower caste, OBCs, and tribal communities, and price rise, he said.
“Now, the BJP can’t contest those. So ‘let’s have Mr. Bidhuri make a statement. Let’s get together and sort of have elections together. Let’s change the name of India’. This is all distraction. We know it, we understand it. And we’re not going to let them do it,” he said.