Oppn will unite to beat BJP: Rahul : The Tribune India

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Oppn will unite to beat BJP: Rahul

NEW DELHI: As the lotus withered in Karnataka on Saturday, the Congress humbly acknowledged the need to work with other Opposition allies to keep the BJP away from power across India.



Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 19

As the lotus withered in Karnataka on Saturday, the Congress humbly acknowledged the need to work with other Opposition allies to keep the BJP away from power across India.

“The Opposition stood against the BJP in Karnataka and stopped it. We will continue to do so. We will work together. The Opposition will unite and coordinate to defeat the BJP and the RSS,” Congress president Rahul Gandhi said minutes after Karnataka’s two-day Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa resigned before the floor test in dramatic developments that have presented the Congress-JDS combine with a chance to form the government now.

Rahul Gandhi’s public applause of JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda on Saturday marks an important shift in the grand old party’s coalition strategy indicating openness for pre-poll coalitions to consolidate the non-BJP vote. Pre-poll coalitions haven’t been Congress’ style. The party has always preferred post-election pacts.

But Rahul signalled new hope on Saturday when he said, “I thank Congress workers and Deve Gowda ji not just for defending the people’s mandate but also for explaining to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS that there are limits to arrogance; that institutions of the country and the will of the people cannot be disrespected.”

The Congress president’s fresh take on allies comes at a time when party leaders have privately begun to admit that what TMC chief Mamata Banerjee said immediately after the Karnataka results is right. “Had the Congress and JDS allied, the results would have been different, very different,” she had said.

The turn of events in Karnataka may well herald a new era in coalition politics in India with regional forces uniting against the BJP, though historically, such alliances have been formed against the Congress. Rahul attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the front calling him “corruption personified” and telling him “you are not above the country”.

“My message to the Prime Minister is he is not bigger than India. He is not bigger than the people, than the Supreme Court and the MPs. The PM must stop thinking he’s bigger than all institutions but I am doubtful if he will ever understand this because he has been trained to respect only one institution — the RSS,” Rahul Gandhi said after earlier accusing the PM of encouraging horse trading in Karnataka.

He had said, “The idea of the PM fighting corruption is a blatant lie. He is corruption himself. He is doing everything to encourage corruption. There are phone conversations from Karnataka that say this…” In calculated criticism of the saffron fold, the Congress leader reminisced how BJP leaders, including the pro tem speaker, in Karnataka left the Assembly on Saturday even before the National Anthem was played.

“Did you see that? This is what we are fighting against…the idea that you can rubbish any institution, disrespect anyone simply because you happen to be in power,” said Rahul Gandhi, recalling how the BJP and RSS “disregarded” the people’s mandates in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya by preventing the Congress, the single largest party in all these states, from forming governments.

In a message to the people of the state, Rahul also said “I am proud that the BJP and PM have been shown by Karnataka that in India, power, money and corruption are not everything, the will of the people is.”

Says Good idea for Guv to quit 

Congress president Rahul Gandhi said it was a “good idea if Karnataka Governor Vajubha Vala resigned” but added, “That issue is not whether the Governor should resign or not. The issue is  the Governor has no power since the power vests in the Prime Minister and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The next man will do the same.”

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