Congress is about 1.3 billion imaginations, BJP is about one: Rahul Gandhi at HTLS 2018

Congress president Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the government today, accusing it of imposing a “single, suffocating ideology on 1.3 billion people.”

Opposition parties have decided to first defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and then later decide on who will be Prime Minister, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said today when asked if he will take the top job next year if his party comes to power.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi giving the keynote address at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit at Taj Palace in New Delhi, on October 5, 2018. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

But if the allies want him as the prime minister?

“If they want me, sure,” said Gandhi, 48. He was speaking at the 16th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, where he delivered a keynote address and later answered questions.

In his keynote address, Rahul Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led government, accusing it of imposing a “single, suffocating ideology on 1.3 billion people” and going “to war with the people.”

“Reimagining India for the BJP, RSS is to shut the imaginations of Indians,” he told a gathering of business leaders, diplomats, political leaders and commentators at the summit, the theme of which is ‘Reimagining The Future’.

Attacking the government over demonetisation and GST, Gandhi also accused it of not building any institutions in the last four and a half year that it has been in power.

Gandhi is spearheading the opposition campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre ahead of key state elections later this year and the Lok Sabha elections next year.

He said he was confident the Congress would “win in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana,” four of the five states where assembly elections will be held this year.