Clearly decided what to do, no confusion in my mind: Rahul Gandhi on Congress president's election

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, September 9

Ahead of the commencement of nomination process for the election to the post of Congress president, the party’s favoured candidate Rahul Gandhi on Friday declared that he had decided what to do and there was no confusion in his mind about the issue.

“I have clearly decided in my mind what I am going to do. There is no confusion in my mind,” said the former Congress president, amid calls from veterans to helm the party which is, electorally, at its worst in history.

Asked if he would contest the October 17 election for which nominations will happen from November 25 to 30, Gandhi kept the suspense lingering as he said, “Congress president’s election is due. When that happens, clarity will come on whether I will stand. If I do not stand, you can ask me why I did not stand. I will answer you…Whether I become Congress president or not will become clear when elections take place. Wait till that time…” said the 52 year old Wayanad MP addressing a press conference in Tamil Nadu on the second day of Bharat Jodo Yatra which he described as an “attempt to connect to the people, listen to them and undo the damage the BJP and RSS had caused by dividing the country along religious, state and language lines.”

Gandhi also sought to blame the BJP for the exodus of several leaders, low and high profile from the party over the past.

Asked why he was unable to convince some Congress leaders of the party’s ideology, Gandhi said, “Well obviously the BJP has better means of putting pressure on them than I do. As I have said the BJP has taken control of all the institutions of this country and they pressurise through these institutions. You know the role of CBI, ED and IT. We are not fighting a political party anymore. The fight now is between the structure of the Indian state and the opposition. This is not an easy fight, it is a difficult fight…. And a lot of people do not want to fight, they feel why get trapped. They feel it is better to make peace with BJP, fold hands before the BJP but my character is to fight for a certain idea of India.”

The former party president also insisted that he was not “leading the padyatra and was only participating in it as a believer in the Congress ideology of pluralism versus the BJP vision of uniformity.”

In clear deviation from the line he took during the Congress Chintan Shivir in Udaipur where he stressed that the Congress alone was best positioned to unite and lead the country against the BJP, Gandhi today batted for opposition unity.

“The entire opposition has a responsibility to come together against the BJP. Everyone has a role in this process and the conversation is ongoing,” Rahul Gandhi said a day after TMC chief and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee skipped the mention of Congress among opposition allies she sees as potential to fight the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Gandhi also rejected the BJP criticism that Bharat Jodo was irrelevant as the country was already united.

“I asked a young girl yesterday what her idea of India was. She defined India as people living in harmony. The question is are people living in harmony. As far as I can see the answer is no,” said Gandhi, flanked by party general secretaries KC Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh who have been walking with Rahul as the second day of the journey got underway.

The yatra will traverse 3,500 km through 12 states and UTs and will end in Kashmir after five months.

Travellers will walk nearly 20 km a day and 119 leaders including Rahul Gandhi will walk the entire stretch.