'The Idea Of Modi Has Been Destroyed': Rahul Gandhi Calls 2024 Election Results A 'Tectonic Shift'

'the idea of modi has been destroyed': rahul gandhi calls 2024 election results a 'tectonic shift'

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has called the 2024 Lok Sabha election results a "tectonic shift" in the Indian political landscape as he claimed that the Modi 3.0 will struggle to "survive". In an interview with Financial Times, Rahul Gandhi spoke at length on the recently concluded Lok Sabha election and its impact on the future of India.

“The space in the Indian political system has been blown open,” Gandhi told the Financial Times. Gandhi was referring to the BJP's below-par outing in the elections as the saffron party could not secure a majority of its own -- a first since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over the reign.

"The numbers are such that they are very fragile, and the smallest disturbance can drop the government," Gandhi said. "Basically one ally has to turn the other way."

The election outcome witnessed the opposition INDIA alliance, led by Rahul Gandhi's Congress party, surpassing expectations by securing 234 seats out of 543 in India's lower house, while the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) won 293 seats.

The Congress leader slammed the Modi-led BJP for propagating hatred for political gains.

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“The idea that you can spread hatred, you can spread anger and you can reap benefits of that — the Indian people have rejected it in this election,” said Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi also claimed that had the elections been fought in a fair manner, the INDIA Bloc would have emerged victorious. Before the polling, Gandhi and his allies alleged that the Modi government had undertaken a crackdown, resulting in the imprisonment of two state leaders and the freezing of some Congress bank accounts.

“We fought with our hands tied behind our back . . . and Indian people, poor people, knew exactly what they had to do,” he said.

Gandhi credited his Bharat Jodo Yatra for the success in the polls. He said a lot of the ideas that succeeded in this election came from that walk — and they came not from us but from the people of India.”

“The judicial system, the media, the institutional framework — all were shut [for the opposition], and so we decided we have to literally, physically go do it,” Gandhi said.

While the BJP saw a marginal dip in its vote share, Gandhi and his allies secured crucial seats in the BJP's stronghold in northern India, including in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state. This includes the Faizabad constituency, where PM Modi inaugurated the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.

In his victory speech, Modi stated, "India's 1.4 billion people have placed their trust" in the BJP and the National Democratic Alliance. Meanwhile, Gandhi asserted that the ruling party had been "fatally wounded" by the voters' verdict.

"The idea of Mr. Modi and the image of Mr. Modi have been destroyed," Gandhi declared.

"The party that spent the last 10 years talking about Ayodhya has been wiped out in Ayodhya. Essentially, what has happened is that the basic architecture of BJP—the idea of creating religious hatred—that has collapsed," he concluded.