People have decided next election, fair polls are the challenge: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi urged INDIA bloc partners to remain united, claiming public anger has already decided the next general election. He alleged democratic institutions are compromised, warned of challenges to free and fair polls, and called for sustained political resistance

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told INDIA bloc leaders earlier this week that going by the anger among the people, the next general election is “already won” but the main problem is that there won’t be a free and fair election to win.

At the meeting of the INDIA bloc on Monday, he also gave a clarion call to the leaders to stay united, saying it is easy to beat the BJP “if we stand together and resist”.

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Gandhi also responded to the criticism of the Congress by its allies, including the Left parties, by referring to the “blue-necked one (Shiva) who drinks all the poison”, and said whatever criticism they have of him or his party will be accepted with a smile on the face.

Gandhi on Friday put out on his social media accounts his over nine-minutes speech that he made at the meeting where the INDIA bloc constituents stressed on unity against the BJP. On Monday, the INDIA bloc members unanimously decided to demand Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s immediate resignation over the NEET-CBSE row and write to the chief justice of India on the SIR exercise and “vote loot”.

In his remarks at the meeting, Gandhi said, “It is not my place to answer any of the things that were said today about the Congress Party. It is my place to like in the Shaiva tradition swallow everything.

The idea of the blue-necked One (Shiva) who drinks all the poison. Whatever more you want to say, whatever criticism you have of me or the Congress Party we will accept it, and we will accept it happily, with a smile on our face.”

“We will try to make you happy, because our role is fundamentally different from yours. I do not say this with arrogance. Our role, as many of you have stated, is to unite all of you together with love and affection,” he said.

Gandhi said there is a confusion in the opposition group with the likes of the SP, the TMC, the RJD believing that the political instruments they have used so far will still work.

These only worked when the Indian state provided a fair field for them to operate in, he said, adding that field does not exist anymore.

He alleged that the BJP controls the institutions of the state — the legal system, the bureaucracy, the intelligence agencies and even the Election Commission.

“I have many friends in the TMC. They were convinced that they were sweeping the election. I kept telling them: you are in dreamland. I have seen what happens, I have seen it in Gujarat, I have seen it in Madhya Pradesh, I have seen it in Chhattisgarh, I have seen it in Haryana and Maharashtra. And yet many of you are still not convinced,” he said.

“Mamata ji is not 100% sure, but she is about 90% sure that her election was stolen from her. Uddhav ji is 40% sure that his election was stolen. My brother Tejashwi ji is 40% sure. Listen — 100% the elections are being stolen. Please remove doubt from your minds,” Gandhi said.

He asserted that the Congress is the party of resistance. Gandhi stressed that he has no interest in fighting with allies. “Please understand: we won the last election in 2024. We did not lose the 2024 election. You ask why Nitish ji left it was not because of me, not because of the Congress,” he said.

Gandhi claimed that in the near future, even those few instruments that used to work will stop working, because the BJP and RSS are tightening their grip on the Indian state.

“If political parties can’t function, what functions? Resistance functions. Resistance works. Wherever we resist, it works. I have seen it with my own eyes. I have walked 4,000 kilometres across this country – resistance works,” Gandhi said.

He said the mindset of the parties must now be: will not fight each other and we will not give the press a chance to attack us. “You are thinking that the challenge is winning the next election. The next election is already won. Please understand: there is so much anger among the people of India that the next election is already over. The problem is the capture of the instruments of the Indian state by the RSS. The problem is that you will not have a free and fair election to win,” he said.

“And so we have to go into the mode of resistance. Resistance is CBSE. Resistance is NEET. Resistance is going to Great Nicobar. Resistance is the Bharat Jodo Yatra. You get up in the morning and you say: how can I resist? And you resist. That will work,” he said.

Gandhi urged opposition parties to get rid of the notion that they are not coordinated and do not act together. “These are all ideas the BJP is putting out. This is not true – I am 100% sure, and I can vouch right now for the DMK. When it comes to defending the idea of India, every single person will be in this room. We have our fights, but if you are asking me to go and hug the ex-chief Minister of Kerala – I cannot and I will not, because I have an on-going political fight with him,” he said.

Gandhi urged the opposition parties to be flexible and and realise that there is a full-scale assault on them. He also noted that the opposition parties’ discussions often have a tinge of depression.

“People think: oh my God, how will we ever beat the BJP? Let me tell you, it is easy to beat them if we stand together and resist,” he said.

“In the last election, nobody, nobody in this room, except me believed that we could beat the BJP. Now everybody in this room must start believing that we will defeat them. You start with that belief, and I guarantee you state after state, election after election, whether they cheat or don’t cheat, they will fall,” Gandhi said.