Newly-elected Congress president Rahul Gandhi said he accepted his party’s fate in the Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. On Tuesday, 19 December, he addressed the press in New Delhi.
He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was suffering from a “credibility problem.” He said that the Congress responded to the Prime Minister’s anger with love during their campaigns in Gujarat.
Even as the Congress lost with 77 seats, the party did surprise many with their tenacious performance in Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
Consoling Congress supporters and workers, the party chief on Monday, 18 December, tweeted, “My Congress brothers and sisters, you have made me very proud. You are different than those you fought because you fought anger with dignity.”
Gandhi also acknowledged the ‘decency’ and ‘courage’ of the Congress party and its supporters.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala did not leave the opportunity to warn the BJP of the same. After the verdict, Surjewala took to Twitter to tell the BJP that the Congress wasn’t far behind.
In his tweet, Surjewala highlighted the fact that there was a difference of less than 3,000 votes between Congress and the BJP in 16 Assembly seats.
The takeaway of the results from Gujarat for the Congress was that Rahul Gandhi could now be considered a viable competitor to Modi. What the results showed is that with the right campaigning and targeting the right issues, Congress could get itself out of BJP’s shadow.
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Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj
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