According to Republic TV, a certain ‘Mr R Gandhi’ was supposed to make a quick trip to London on May 20 and return to New Delhi within 3 days on May 23, on the day of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections results. However, shortly after the Exit Poll numbers took the country by storm on May 19, forecasting a landslide victory for PM Narendra Modi, the ticket was mysteriously cancelled.
Did Rahul Gandhi panic after Republic exposed his London flight? This ticket surely suggests as muchhttps://t.co/mSPEmretLt
— Republic (@republic) May 21, 2019
‘Mr R Gandhi’ was scheduled to travel from New Delhi to London. The flight was to take-off for London from New Delhi at 1:20 am on May 20, hours after the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections got over and various exit polls suggested PM Modi’s return to power.
The same person was slated to return to the national capital from London on May 22. As per the return ticket, ‘Mr R Gandhi’ was supposed to board a flight at 11:20 PM on May 22 and come back on the result day. The trip nicely dovetailed into the three-day window offered between the conclusion of the last phase of Lok Sabha polls and the result day.
However, the departure was cancelled at the last moment. The reason for the cancellation is unknown. The cancellation of the ticket happened amidst various exit polls projecting thumping majority for the BJP in the recently concluded elections. Though it is not conclusive whether Mr R Gandhi is the Congress president himself, the dates of the ticket and the past record of Rahul Gandhi vanishing after elections do raise suspicions.
Following the exit polls predictions, the opposition, which was upbeat about their performance had to recalibrate their strategy.
Former UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had initially invited a long list of Opposition leaders as well as major non-NDA and non-UPA politicians including Telangana CM and TRS chief KCR, BJD chief and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik and YSRCP supremo Jagan Mohan Reddy to a meeting, allegedly to home in on a coalition Prime Ministerial candidate against Narendra Modi. However, that meeting has been called off indefinitely. Earlier, BSP supremo Mayawati had postponed her meeting with Sonia Gandhi after the unfavourable results from the exit polls dampened Congress’ stake at the centre.
