Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday that the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) will be "hard to find in Telangana" after the Assembly Election which is scheduled to be held later this year. This comes after the Congress party's recent victory in Karnataka for which Gandhi said that BJP tried everything in the book and yet was "decimated", "they had the entire media, they had 10 times the amount of money we had, they had the government, they had the agency. They had everything and then we decimated them".
"It will be hard to find the BJP in Telangana after this election.” Rahul Gandhi said at a dinner event in New York organised by the Indian Overseas Congress-USA, as quoted by news agency PTI. Rahul Gandhi claimed that his party will “decimate” the BJP in Telangana and other state polls.
During the dinner event, the Congress leader emphasised how the party "smashed" the BJP during the recent state assembly election. He further said that it wasn't just the party but the people of India who are going to defeat BJP's hate-filled ideology.
“We have shown in Karnataka that we can decimate the BJP… We did not defeat them, we decimated them. We smashed them in Karnataka,” Gandhi said, according to PTI.
“And I want you to know that we are going to decimate them in Telangana next,” he remarked. Congress supporters, officials, party members, and members of the Indian community gathered in large numbers at the community event that was also attended by New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
Gandhi arrived in New York after visiting Washington and San Francisco and will address a community rally at the Javits Centre in Manhattan on Sunday.
Apart from the Telangana election, there are elections scheduled for Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh this year.
“It is not just the Congress party that is going to defeat the BJP. It is the people of India, the people of Madhya Pradesh, the people of Telangana, the people of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh who are going to defeat the BJP,” Gandhi remarked, as quoted by PTI.
'India can't go forward with hatred BJP is spreading': Rahul Gandhi
The fomer Congress president said that India has understood that it cannot go forward with the "hatred that BJP is spreading in society". He said that in the next few states it is going to happen and then after 2024 Congress will do the same, as per PTI.
"The opposition is united, we are all working together. It is an ideological battle. On one side, there is a divisive ideology of the BJP, the hate-filled ideology of the BJP. On the other side, there is the affectionate, loving ideology of the Congress party,” he said.
Adding to it, he said that in Karnataka, the BJP tried to polarise the election and create anger and hatred between communities.
“Prime Minister himself tried it. Did it work?” he asked, to which the audience replied no.
Gandhi said the people of Karnataka declared that the election is about prices, unemployment, and corruption. Gandhi referred to his slogan he spoke during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, during which he had said “Nafrat ke bazaar mein mohabbat ki dukan kholenge.”
“You respect other religions. You respect other cultures. You respect other people, you respect women. And that is the best way to fight the BJP, to live according to the ideology that we believe in,” he said, adding that the fight is not difficult.