New Delhi, Observing that the Assembly election results in five states were a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said opposition parties would unitedly fight and defeat the BJP in 2019 elections with the central themes being unemployment, agrarian distress and corruption.
Addressing the media here after Congress emerged the winner in Chhattisgarh and inched closer to victory in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Gandhi said the people’s disenchantment over Modi’s failure to deliver on his promises was palpable across the country.
“There is a feeling among the people in our country that what was committed by Mr. Modi, he has not been able to deliver it. That’s clear cut. There is a sense among the youth that the promise of employment has not been fulfilled. Same feeling is there among the farmers.
“There is a feeling of discontent, inability to see the future. Inability to understand how they are going to survive and thrive in the field of agriculture. I think that has had a big impact,” Gandhi said.
He said that with a resurgent Congress party in the states and the combined opposition, it was going to be “very difficult” for Prime Minister Modi and the BJP to win future elections.
“This is a clear message to the Prime Minister and the BJP that the country is not happy with what they are doing. The country is not happy with demonetisation, with GST, lack of jobs,” he said.
“I think there are serious questions being asked about the future of our youngsters, the central question is how does our country give jobs to millions and millions of youth?” he added.
He said Modi was elected on three major planks of employment, corruption and farmers’ distress. But Modi has failed on all fronts.
“People thought the Prime Minister would fight against corruption. But that sense has gone away. Now people realise that Modi himself is corrupt. It’s a reality that corruption happened in the Rafale deal. Its truth will come out,” he said.
Exuding confidence that a united opposition would defeat Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi underlined that the Congress did not want to banish anyone from the country.
“We will fight against BJP’s ideology. We have defeated them now and will defeat them in 2019. But we don’t want to banish anyone from India,” Gandhi said when asked if he would strive for a BJP-mukt Bharat.
He said the central issues in the 2019 poll battle will be unemployment and agrarian crisis.
“The opposition is strongly united and we will unitedly contest against the BJP,” he added.