In US, Rahul Gandhi says Congress ‘destroyed idea of Modi'

Now, the 'politics in India has fundamentally changed,' he said at Georgetown University.

The Congress ‘destroyed’ the ‘idea' of prime minister Narendra Modi in the recent Lok Sabha elections, according to Rahul Gandhi, the former president of the grand old party.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and LOP Rahul Gandhi exchange handshake in Lok Sabha on June 26. (ANI Photo/Sansad TV)

“There is a design element in the Congress party that has been in place since Mahatma Gandhi's time, and it has certain qualities as a political organisation that are very powerful. I was watching the elections, and there was a point when we sat down with the treasurer, who said, ‘Look, your bank accounts are frozen. How are you supposed to fight an election if your accounts are frozen?’ We really didn't have an answer then.” Gandhi said at Washington's Georgetown University.

“Yet, the Congress Party fought the election and essentially destroyed the idea of Modi. You can see this because, when you watch the prime minister in Parliament now…he's psychologically trapped. He cannot come to terms with it; he is psychologically trapped,” the Rae Bareli MP, on his maiden visit to the United States as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, added.

Further, he remarked that ‘politics in India has fundamentally changed.' Gandhi was probably referring to multiple ‘U-turns’ taken by the ruling BJP as it no longer enjoys single-party majority in the Lok Sabha, where it now has 240 members in the 543-seat house, as against 282 seats in 2014 and 303 five years later.

On the other hand, the Congress nearly doubled its tally, going from 52 in 2019 to 99. This meant that for the first time in 10 years, there would be an official Leader of Opposition, a post that went to Gandhi.