In London, Rahul talks 2024 and a model 'acceptable to all non-BJP parties'

The former Congress chief claimed that the opposition in India was pitted against a larger force than the ruling BJP. Rahul was replying to queries during an interaction with the Indian Journalists Association in London. - Reports ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi:The opposition parties in India support the basic idea that they need to fight the BJP in the 2024 national elections and are talking to each other over the issue, according to former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

“There is a lot of coordination that goes on with the opposition parties. There are conversations going on with the opposition parties. I am aware of many of them. The basic idea that the RSS and the BJP need to be fought and defeated is deeply entrenched in the minds of the opposition parties. There are some tactical issues that require discussion. Some states are very simple while other states are more complicated. The opposition is very much capable of resolving these differences,” Rahul said.

“You have individual states that work differently but if we are able to coalesce the opposition around an idea, we can defeat the BJP." The former Congress chief was replying to queries during an interaction with the Indian Journalists Association in London. On Sunday the Congress released a video of the interaction to the media. Rahul has been talking about the need to fight the BJP unitedly in 2024 and has said that the grand old party was prepared to play its part in building opposition unity during his recent Bharat Jodo Yatra.

“The Yatra is an idea. It is a model the basic design of which is acceptable to all non-BJP parties. What is that basic design, carry everybody, talk about social justice, listen to people,” he said. According to Rahul, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be fought on “the key issues like unemployment, the impact of a flawed demonetization and GST on the economy, destruction of small and medium enterprises and massive concentration of wealth in the hands of a few but also on how the opposition fights together.”

The former Congress chief claimed there is a lot of anger against the ruling BJP and much of it was revealed to him by the commoners who spoke to him during the Bharat Jodo Yatra. “There is a lot of anger against the BJP. In the yatra, there was an undercurrent of anger against the BJP. It was against the narrative being peddled in the national media,” he said.

The Congress leader claimed that the opposition in India was pitted against a larger force than the ruling BJP. “Opposition in India is no longer fighting the BJP alone. The RSS and the BJP have captured almost all of India’s institutions. So, the idea of a level playing field does not exist. In the United Kingdom, two parties fight the elections and the institutions are neutral. That has gone in India,” he said.

The former Congress chief countered the view that his party was losing the perception battle on social media. “The yatra dominated the narrative…the BJP tried to attack it. I saw it with my own eyes…it was a transformational thing. The national press was forced to do that. So, this concept that the Congress party is losing out on social media is a figment of imagination,” he said.