‘In touch with like-minded parties, sure of Congress-led UPA victory’

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service 

Gwalior, May 8

A confident Rahul Gandhi today said the Congress-led UPA alliance would form the next government at the Centre and that all like-minded anti-BJP parties were in touch with each other for post-election strategising.

In a freewheeling exclusive interview to The Tribune en route to Gwalior where he had to address election rallies, the Congress president said Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood demolished and was no longer the political force he was made out to be, and that “the Congress has closed all doors for Modi and he has no escape route”.

THE TRIBUNE INTERVIEW: We have demolished Modi, outmanoeuvred him; he is scared: Rahul Gandhi

“We have outmanoeuvred him. He is scared. He is seeing all doors closing on him. He’s worried,” Gandhi said, projecting eight to 10 seats for the BJP in the key state of Uttar Pradesh where it had won 71 in 2014.

Asked what gave him the confidence to proclaim victory for the Congress and allies, Gandhi said, “There’s an undercurrent of anger against Prime Minister Modi. The people I am meeting are saying this. Even people in the BJP are saying ‘inko to hataana hai (Modi has to be removed)’.”

The Gandhi scion, however, left the question of prime ministership open, refusing to comment on whether he would be the Prime Minister since he was predicting a Congress-led dispensation. He was non-committal even when asked if he would follow in his mother and former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s footsteps by declining the PM’s job, or whether he was ready for that.

“The decision of who is going to become the Prime Minister is in the hands of the people of India. They will decide on May 23, what ideology they choose and whom they choose. I am no one to second guess that,” Gandhi said. Insisting on Opposition unity in Uttar Pradesh, where anti-BJP parties fought against each other, Gandhi said the like-minded parties were united in UP. He said all anti-BJP parties were in  conversation about post-poll scenarios.

Gandhi described Prime Minister Modi’s  nationalism pitch as “mere excuses”, adding that the Congress had closed all doors on him (PM Modi) and he now had no escape or excuses. Asked about PM Modi’s attacks on his late father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi over anti-Sikh riots, he said “justice should be done 100 per cent and all the guilty should be punished”.

Asked if it would have been good for him to join the UPA-II government led by PM Manmohan Singh, Gandhi said he did not regret his decisions. He also said there was never any decision to field his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in elections.

On failing to forge an alliance in Delhi, the Congress president said it was only after the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party changed alliance goal posts that the Congress decided not to ally. “They had agreed to four Delhi seats for them, three for us. When I came back to AAP, Kejriwal said we want Haryana and Punjab too. After which, we decided not to tie up,” Gandhi said, refuting the Opposition charge that the Congress was arrogant.

‘Fighting as an alliance’

The UPA is fighting as an alliance. We have an internal, ongoing conversation with our partners, we also have like-minded parties... we have worked with them throughout the election. So that process is ongoing