Rahul Gandhi centre of hope, expectations in country: Ashok Gehlot

Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot said on Friday, 13 September, that the ruling BJP has "panicked" due to the successful US visit of leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and is spreading rumours about it.

"Despite the BJP's efforts from the past 15-20 years to defame him, Rahul Gandhi has now become the centre of hope and expectation of the country. Due to this, the BJP has become so desperate and aggressive that BJP leaders in the country's capital are openly talking about killing Rahul Gandhi," he said.

BJP president J.P. Nadda's silence on such statements is surprising and shows to what extent the party can go to retain power, he said.

Gehlot was referring to a BJP leader purportedly "threatening" Rahul Gandhi.

Congress's media and publicity department head Pawan Khera had recently shared a video on X in which BJP leader Tarvinder Singh Marvah is purportedly saying, "Rahul Gandhi baaz aaja nahi toh aane wale time mein tera bhi wohi haal hoga jo teri dadi ka haal hua (Rahul Gandhi, refrain from such things, otherwise in the coming time, you will also suffer the same fate as your grandmother)".

Referring to Rahul Gandhi's recent four-day visit to the United States, Gehlot said the BJP has completely "panicked" due to the success of his US visit and has started spreading rumours about it.

The former chief minister said the people taught a good lesson to the BJP, which went to the Lok Sabha elections with the intention of "changing" the Constitution and "removing" reservation but despite this the BJP is not refraining from lying on the issue of reservation.

Referring to Rahul Gandhi's remarks on reservation, Gehlot said the former Congress president has clearly said that reservation is necessary to bring equality in society and its limit should also be increased as per the need.

"Rahul Gandhi is fighting for social justice in the country, which he will take to its conclusion and will never let the BJP's intention of tampering with reservation be fulfilled," Gehlot said.

He said the BJP should now stop trying to "mislead" the country because the country understands the meaning of each and every word spoken by Rahul Gandhi in America.

The former Congress president had told students at a US university that the Congress would think of scrapping reservations when "India is a fair place", which he said is not the case right now.

BJP leaders have been criticising Rahul Gandhi for his remarks in the US and accused the leader of opposition of hurting the dignity of India by saying “misleading, baseless and factless things” during his foreign tour.