Lucknow: The response to senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra seemingly shows that “Bharat is Rahul ji and Rahul ji is Bharat”, said Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Brijlal Khabri, in a fresh take on former party president Dev Kant Baruah’s 1970s declaration “Indira Is India, India Is Indira”, a reference to former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
“Na darna hai, na jhukna hai (we will not be afraid or bend down). This is the slogan of Rahul ji. You are not seeing any other party fighting the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) today. Look at all our regional parties, can you see them fighting the BJP? If anyone is fighting (the BJP), it is the Congress and our leader Rahul Gandhi is fighting every battle,” Khabri told ThePrint Monday.
Khabri, who was appointed president of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) on 1 October, days before the scheduled Congress presidential election on 17 October, also said, “The fight happens in Parliament, but that is during discussion. BJP is never ready for discussion. When there are no debates in Parliament, how will the country benefit? Therefore, Rahul ji found a new way and decided to go among the public and took the public along in Kanyakumari and today in entire India, wherever he has reached (during his yatra), it reflects that Bharat is Rahul ji and Rahul ji is Bharat.”
The UPCC president also claimed that in the 2024 general elections, the Congress will field candidates from all 80 Lok Sabha seats from UP — a state where the party was decimated in the assembly elections held earlier this year — and fight the BJP’s “politics of hatred”.
Making it clear that “the door is open” for anyone who wants to walk with the Congress and “fight to save the country, democracy and Constitution”, Khabri called upon rival parties to join hands in the “maha sangram (mega-battle)” of 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The UP Congress president also defended the schedule of Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra, which has drawn criticism from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for spending 18 days in Left-ruled Kerala and only two days in BJP-ruled UP, calling it a strange way to fight the BJP-RSS. The UP-leg of the yatra was, however, reportedly extended to five days.
“A map has been drawn for walking 3,570 kilometres… in 150 days, we are walking as much. There is nothing like injustice or leaving some place and walking along others. We are with everyone,” he said.
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‘Will fight all 80 Lok Sabha seats in UP’
Talking about the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Khabri told ThePrint the Congress “will fight the Lok Sabha polls on all 80 seats, the way we had fought in 2022 assembly elections” and not leave a single Vidhan Sabha seat uncontested.
“We will fight with full strength so that the condition of the country can be improved. Rahul ji has vowed to fix those who spread hatred, the party which has plunged the entire country into hatred,” Khabri said, when asked about the Congress strategy for the Lok Sabha polls.
Responding to reports from a few months back about the Congress reaching out to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s estranged uncle Shivpal Yadav, who heads the Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party, Khabri said the Congress was a party with a large heart and its door is open.
“We have to save the country, democracy and the Constitution. At this moment, whoever is ready to walk with us, the door is open and they can join us in the maha sangram (mega-battle) because at this moment, saving the country and Constitution is very important. If democracy doesn’t survive, then we cannot imagine what the future will be like,” he said.
Last month, however, Shivpal had remarked that his party will be in the government by 2024, leading to speculation of a possible alliance with the BJP-led NDA in the future.
Asked about his expectations about the Congress’ performance in the 2024 elections, given that it won only one seat in UP in the previous Lok Sabha polls and got a vote share of only 6. 36 per cent in the state in 2019, Khabri exuded confidence of a better performance in the upcoming polls owing to the ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“Wherever he (Rahul Gandhi) is going lakhs of people are gathering around him with love… it seems entire the Bharat is walking behind him, beside him and ahead of him. It seems that Bharat is Rahul ji and Rahul ji is Bharat. Today we can feel this,” he said.
Asked about the seats where the Congress can make a difference, Khabri said that they will perform very well on all 80 seats in UP and “time will tell”.
‘Community following Babasaheb ready to walk with Congress’
Speaking at a convention last month, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav had called upon followers of Dr B.R. Ambedkar and Ram Manohar Lohia to come together, in what was perceived to be an attempt to integrate backward classes, Dalits and Muslims to expand the party vote bank.
Responding to Akhilesh’s comments, Khabri said, “Congress supported Babasaheb Ambedkar when he became Ambedkar. Babasaheb went to the Constituent Assembly through the Congress. Congress and Ambedkar are no different. The community following Babasaheb is today ready to walk along the Congress step by step. I am fully hopeful that we all will together succeed in saving the democracy, Constitution and the country.”
Asked about leaders from Brahmin, Muslim and Dalit communities being appointed as the six provincial presidents in Congress, he said that it would be injustice to look at Congress workers through the prism of caste and religion.
“A Congress worker will naturally come from some or the other caste or religion. If we look at the caste and religion, I think it will be injustice. We are humans, we may have taken birth in any caste, but our ideology is the same and we are together taking the Congress ahead with one aim to save the country and save people from inflation, unemployment and work for health, roads, etc. This we can do only when we can save democracy,” he said.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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