Lok Sabha Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has taken an uncompromising stand on allies and the fight against the BJP, soon after his party's victory in Kerala.
Rahul was addressing in Gurgaon on Friday the last meeting of the Sadbhav Yatra — a foot march of the party in Haryana led by former MP Brijendra Singh since October last year to counter bigotry and raise awareness on economic crises and alleged electoral manipulation.
Starting off with "vote chori (theft)", Rahul included Bengal in his list of states where he thinks electoral fraud had been committed.
"The election here (Haryana), the BJP stole it. Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra and now Bengal, Assam — they have established a system for stealing elections. They strike off hundreds of thousands of names.... The Election Commission is under their control. The bureaucracy is under their control. And they believe that their rule can no longer be stopped. But their time is coming to an end."
The Congress leader added: "Come what may, this is a battle of ideologies. And only two ideologies contend in this country. Politically, there are only two ideologies: one belongs to the RSS —an ideology of hatred and division; the other belongs to the Congress party — an ideology of love and unity. Mark my words: all the other parties will be unable to stand their ground against them. They will not be able to unite. And in the end, only the Congress party will remain standing, and the Congress party will defeat them."
Rahul's message comes after an election campaign where he accused two INDIA allies — Trinamool and the CPM — of tacitly strengthening the BJP. Soon after the polls, the Congress unceremoniously switched from the DMK, arguably its most loyal ally, to align with newbie Vijay's TVK in Tamil Nadu.
Multiple Congress leaders told The Telegraph that this was a watershed moment for the party where Rahul now believes that the Congress can only become an effective opponent of the BJP if it builds its own political capital, rather than depend on allies who are either compromised or will not allow the Congress to grow.
A party functionary told this paper: "Rahul Gandhi is the face of the opposition to BJP rule, and anti-BJP votes will only go to an alliance which is led by the Congress in 2029. All non-BJP parties want the BJP's defeat in 2029, otherwise it will change the architecture of Indian democracy and establish a permanent dictatorship."