Ahmedabad, Dec 23: An upbeat Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said the party's "lost and won" performance in Gujarat had given Congressmen the confidence to win in coming elections.
Participating in the final leg of a two-day review of the Gujarat polls here, he claimed that his party would win 135 of the 182 Assembly seats in the 2022 Assembly polls in Gujarat.
Rahul said that three-four months ago, no one gave Congress any chance in Gujarat. BJP went to the extent of claiming that they would win 150+ seats. "My main challenge was that if Gujarat Congress believes that it is going to win, then it would win. You believed in it 70% and can see the results. Now Gujarat Congress has confidence. Now you know that you can win. Now just wait for the results of (2019) Lok Sabha and (2022) Assembly elections. It will be a great result. All those sitting here will be in government," he said.
"We lost in the elections but we have won. This is the reality. We won because they fought those with anger, money, police, chief ministers and industrialists. We only had truth. We showed the entire country that Congress can fight and win," he said.
Congratulating BJP for its victory in the state and accepting Opposition role, Rahul claimed that the new BJP government would work for 5-6 industrialists and "snatch lands" of farmers. "What we talked about Gujarat government in the elections is truth and the fight has not ended. Farmers, women and youth have voted for us…You have to show that Congress legislators fight for people, their issues and do not take a step back," Rahul said.
Rahul said that Congress in the state had been able to take away the "development" plank of Prime Minister and BJP. "They stand exposed on this. In the end he (PM) talked about himself all the time. The entire country knows it and they cannot use it (development plank) anywhere," he added.
Addressing elected legislators, defeated candidates and party workers at the meeting, Rahul said, "You fought well. The tickets too were distributed fairly, except for a few mistakes that happen," he said.
Thanksgiving
Rahul, who landed at Somnath on Saturday morning, paid a visit to the famous temple of Lord Shiva, before reaching Ahmedabad for the review meeting. Among reasons that many Congressmen enlisted for Congress not making it to the finishing line, included usual excuses such as aspersions against functioning of EVMs, mistakes in selection of some candidates or giving in too much to three young leaders - Hardik Patel, Alpesh Thakor and Jignesh Mevani.
"All three of us have won 53 seats for Congress and of the 29 seats I campaigned in, we have won 23. Perhaps, if I had time to travel to 20-30 more constituencies, we could have won more," Alpesh Thakor said on the sidelines of the meet.
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