No question of tie-up with TRS… AAP all air: Rahul’s poll talk

During the course of the Yatra in Telangana – a state where the Congress is the main opposition party – Rahul has been steadily raising the pitch against the TRS. He said he had met several delegations of weavers, farmers, women, students and unemployed youth, and all told him about the problems they were facing. “There is an outpouring from various sections. Every section of the society is suffering because of the policies of the TRS in the state and the BJP at the Centre,’’ Rahul said.

He has also accused the Telangana government of “grabbing land from SCs and STs”, “minting money through various irrigation projects’’ and “privatising and destroying the education system”. At Mathkal, he said the TRS and BJP were two sides of the same coin. “The TRS has supported the BJP at the Centre in getting Bills passed. Both are undemocratic and are working together like business houses rather than political parties, and are totally neglecting the people,’’ Rahul said.

On Monday, with the high-stakes Munugode Assembly bypoll three days away, he accused the BJP and TRS of spending crores on elections. “The question is where is this money coming from. Obviously, it is coming from corruption and this money is being distributed blatantly.”

Asked about the Congress prospects in the Gujarat elections, Rahul exuded confidence that his party will win, and that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has only created a buzz in the state, on the basis of advertisements, and had no support on the ground.

Claiming massive anti-incumbency against the BJP government in the state, Rahul said: “The Congress is contesting the Gujarat elections effectively. AAP is only in the air… The media has created a buzz based on the advertisements given by AAP… The Congress is solid on the ground, it will win.”

While expressing his condolences over the tragedy in Morbi, where a bridge collapse left more than 130 dead, Rahul said he would not talk about it as he did not wish to politicise the incident.

Repeating what the Congress has called the core of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul said the fight in India today was between two ideologies – one to divide the nation and to spread violence, and the other to bring the nation together. “The line is very clear. The Congress party and I feel that the Opposition parties should work together and harmoniously to defeat the ideology of the RSS and BJP.”

The Bharat Jodo Yatra was definitely “a political act”, Rahul said. “This is not a sports yatra. It is a political action against the way the BJP and RSS are dividing the country, and damaging the country.

He also said that the Congress was a democratic party, unlike others. “It is in our DNA that we not run a dictatorship. Recently we democratically elected a party president. I don’t know when the RSS, BJP, BRS and other parties will hold elections to choose their leaders. The media always asks about elections in the Congress but never dares to question the BJP or the TRS,’’ he said.