Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday blamed Aam Aadmi Party for Congress’ dismal performance in the Gujarat assembly elections. Gandhi said that Congress would have won if AAP had not fought the polls.
‘If there was no AAP in Gujarat who disturbed Congress’ narrative and issues, we would have been in a good position to defeat the BJP in Gujarat,” said the Gandhi scion whose party scraped a mere 17 seats in the 182-seat Gujarat Vidhan Sabha.
Calling AAP the “proxy” of the BJP and accusing them of colluding with the saffron party, Gandhi said that the two parties together had hurt the electoral prospects of Congress in the state. AAP, however, had rejected these allegations, accusing the Congress party of siding with the BJP to block its enintoy in Gujarat.
Mr Gandhi also spoke on the Tawang clashes between Chinese PLA and Indian Army forces on December 9, claiming that Beijing is preparing for a war against India. Days after the clashes, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in the Parliament that Indian soldiers fought valiantly against the Chinese intruders and forced them to retreat to their posts across the LAC.
BJP created history with the election victory in Gujarat by bagging 156 seats, breaking the 1985 record held by Congress’ Madhavsinh Solanki, who had then led the party to victory with 149 seats. BJP stormed to power by winning 57 more seats than it won in 2017, while Congress had been reduced to 17 from 77 five years ago. The new entrant, AAP, won 5 seats in the assembly polls, but yet former Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, blamed the Arvind Kejriwal-led party for his party’s embarrassing defeat in the polls.