Told My Mother That PM Modi Has Taught Me What Not to Do, Says Rahul After Heartland Win

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi congratulated party workers for the wins in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, and said a “resurgent Congress" would make it difficult for Prime Minister Modi to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Congress is currently locked in a close contest with the BJP in Madhya Pradesh.

For the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, this was the grand old party’s best performance since 2014.

However, KCR was able to win Telangana by a big margin and the Congress lost its last frontier in the north east as MNF trounced it in Mizoram.

Reflecting upon the results, Rahul said he was “quite happy with what we have achieved". He added that he wished the party had done better in Telangana.

Rahul credited the victory to the party “worker, shopkeepers, small businessmen farmer" and also congratulated the losing BJP chief ministers for having put in the work over the years. He said but the time for change is now and the Congress will bring in development.

“In states we lost Mizoram and Telangana, we congratulate those who won. This is a win for the workers who stood up in difficult times and stood for our ideology, youth and small businesses," said Rahul.

Rahul said there is a lot of work to be done in states where the Congress won.

“It is our responsibility to listen to the demands of these groups and provide states with a vision and a government they can be proud of," said Rahul.

Rahul said the congress differs with the BJP ideologically but it does not want to make it a BJP-mukt Bharat, but will work hard to fight it ideologically.

He said the BJP has failed to provide a vision for the country.

“I was telling my mother that the absolute best thing for me was the 2014 election. I learnt a lot from that election. I learnt that the most important thing is humility," said the Congress chief, who took a lot of the blame for the party's earlier election defeats.

"Frankly, Narendra Modi taught me the lesson - what not to do," Rahul Gandhi remarked. "PM Modi was handed a huge opportunity. It is a sad thing that he refused to listen to the heartbeat of the country. The arrogance came in."

Asked about the selection of chief ministers in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, he said there will not be any issue and it will be done smoothly.

There is a clear message to Prime Minister Modi that people are not happy with his decisions, including demonetisation and those pertaining to farmers and youth, he said, adding the BJP has failed to provide a vision for the country going forward.

Asserting that the process of loan waiver for farmers will start as soon as Congress governments are formed, he, however, said the loan waiver is a measure, not a solution to farmers' distress.

Gandhi was named to lead the Congress exactly a year ago and took over the charge from his mother Sonia Gandhi a few days later.