Bjp: In US, Rahul Gandhi claims Congress will defeat BJP in 2024 | India News – Times of India

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WASHINGTON: Claiming that there is a “hidden undercurrent” building in India against the ruling BJP, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday that a “surprise” is in the offing the Lok Sabha election in 2024, indication of which was evident in the Congress victory in Karnataka which would be validated in upcoming assembly elections in several states.
“I think the Congress party will do very well in the next two years. I think it will,” Gandhi said at a media interaction at Washington’s National Press Club, a venue where his father, grandmother, and grandfather had addressed the press.
Rahul Gandhi’s assertion came after even the host, American journalist Kerry O’Reilly, suggested in his introduction that despite concerns about Prime Minister Modi’s authoritarian streak, he “appears poised to win a third term” in 2024.
Gandhi challenged the proposition during a q&a, saying he was “not entirely convinced” about it is “not as simple as it look” and “if you just do the math, a united opposition will defeat the BJP.”

He repeated the assertion at a dinner hosted by Frank Islam, an Indian-American entrepreneur originally from Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, predicting that the BJP will be decimated in the assembly elections, which would be a precursor to what will follow in the parliamentary elections.
“Please realise that 60% of India does not vote for the BJP, does not vote for Narendra Modi. The BJP has the instruments of noise in their hand, so they can shout, they can scream, they can distort, they can yell, and they are much better at doing that. But they do not have the support of the vast majority of the Indian population,” he contended.

He also expressed confidence that there will be a grand opposition alliance against the BJP before the Lok Sabha elections. “We are having conversations with all the Opposition parties. It’s a complicated discussion because there are spaces where we are competing with the Opposition. So a bit of give and take is required. But I am confident that it will happen,” he said.
The Congress leader’s engagements in the US, some of which have involved minorities and critics of the ruling party in India, has led to charges of minority pandering from the BJP, which specifically took issue with his description of the Indian Union Muslim League in Kerala as a secular party.

Right wing critics of Congress hit out at Gandhi for characterising what they claimed to be a nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party as communal while giving a secular certificate to a party whose very nomenclature invoked religion.
In raging social media battles, the Congress leader also came under attack for claiming that the BJP had ceded territory to China, with right wing activists drawing up a laundry list of Nehru-Gandhi concessions that had weakened India.

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Rahul Gandhi predicts a surprising performance by Congress in 2024, cites “hidden undercurrent”

“The fact of the matter is China is occupying our territory. It’s an accepted fact,” Gandhi said at the NPC meeting, doubling down on his contention. “It’s absolutely unacceptable. Prime Minister seems to believe otherwise,” he added.
Pushing back at the BJP charge that he is seeking foreign intervention in India’s internal affairs, the Congress leader maintained that India’s battles to sustain democracy were for Indians to sort out, but he suggested the world should think about “how much you have to value Indian democracy” because “Indian democracy is a global public good.”
“India is large enough that a collapse in democracy in India will affect…will have an impact on the world,” he warned.





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