Remember who won in 2004: Rahul says Lok Sabha polls 'much closer' than media portrayal

Remember who won 2004, after 'India Shining' campaign: Rahul

New Delhi: Congress campaigner-in-chief Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed that the Lok Sabha battle is "much closer than what media propagates", as he recalled the BJP's unsuccessful 'India Shining' blitzkrieg in 2004 and said one should remember who won 20 years ago.

Addressing the media after the launch of the Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections, he said this election is between those who are trying to destroy the Constitution and democracy in the country and those who are trying to protect them.

He said the Congress has placed itself to work for people and once they win this fight, they will take all steps to look after the interests of the vast majority of people in the country. "We are not a nation of monopolies, we are a country where there is fair competition among businesses," he said.

Asked about the prospects of the Opposition, he said he was not a soothsayer and unlike many political commentators, he cannot predict the future.

However, he said, he was confident that this is a "much closer election than is being propagated" by the media.

"It is a close election and we are going to fight an excellent election and we are going to win this election. Please do remember that there was a similar feeling being generated by the press when Vajpayee-ji was the Prime Minister, there was the 'India Shining' campaign. We have a similar idea being propagated with 2-3 new dimensions ... Do remember what happened to the 'India Shining' campaign and do remember who won that campaign," he said.

To another question, he said one needs to understand the foundation of the strategy made by the RSS, BJP and Modi.

"The way Adani has a monopoly in ports, infrastructure and defence, in the same way Prime Minister Modi has made a monopoly in political finance by using ED, CBI and Income Tax Department... [Congress president Mallikarjun] Kharge-ji said that those who are corrupt are joining BJP, the reason is that Modi wants to keep control of political finance monopoly," he said. "This is an election of 2 to 3 to 5 per cent [of people] versus India," he added.

Asked about who will be the Prime Ministerial candidate of the Congress, he said the I.N.D.I.A partners have made a decision that they will unitedly fight this "ideological election" and after the polls, the coalition will together take a call on the who the next Prime Minister will be.

Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who was present at the function, also did not respond to a question on the Prime Ministerial face. In an earlier election, Sonia had masked her photo while revealing Manmohan Singh’s picture when asked who would be the party’s Prime Ministerial face.