Rahul Gandhi is leading opposition, will lead country too: Sachin Pilot

Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot on Sunday, 29 September, said he sees Rahul Gandhi as a leader who will lead the country in future and the entire opposition will stand unitedly behind him when the next Lok Sabha elections happen.

In an interview with PTI, Pilot said Rahul Gandhi, following the historic Bharat Jodo Yatras and a good result for the Congress, has taken the Centre to task with the BJP-led government "failing on all fronts".

Asked about the impact of Rahul Gandhi assuming the charge of leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Pilot said, "Rahul Gandhi has led from the front as the leader of the Opposition (in the Lok Sabha). He is asking pertinent questions for which the government has no answers."

"He is not just the LoP for the Congress but for the entire opposition. It is a constitutional position that comes with a lot of responsibility. Mr Rahul Gandhi has been very vociferous in raising issues that matter to the people and the government has been caught on the backfoot because they don't know how to respond. They are forced to take U-turns as the government is not able to provide satisfactory answers," the former Union minister said.

The government is proposing agendas and withdrawing agendas, he said, alleging that the BJP-led government at the Centre is "failing on all fronts".

"Of course, we all see him as a leader who will lead the country and when the next elections happen, the people of India and the entire opposition will stand unitedly behind Rahul Gandhi," Pilot said.

He said the government has had to take steps back since the Lok Sabha polls, be it the issue of lateral entry in the civil services or the Waqf board bill.

There was a sense of arrogance and domination with which the central government operated for the last 10 years, but now there is a huge change and people of India have given a stern and sobering message in this general election, the former Union leader said.

People have more faith in the opposition than in the incumbent government and the BJP realises that, the 47-year-old-leader said.

"In Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, we will have a resounding victory and the next two states that follow -- Maharashtra and Jharkhand -- the INDIA bloc is very strongly placed," he said.

Rahul Gandhi, who has been an MP for five terms and currently represents the Rae Bareli constituency previously held by his mother Sonia Gandhi, assumed the mantle of leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha in June after the general elections.

He won from two constituencies in the polls but vacated the Wayanad seat in Kerala, from where his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will contest a bypoll.

Rahul Gandhi entered the Lok Sabha for the first time in 2004 following his victory from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.