Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | Sit in Opposition or stake claim to form govt? I.N.D.I.A. bloc to decide on June 5

New Delhi: With the BJP settling below 250 seats, questions were posed to the Congress on Tuesday whether it will sit in Opposition or initiate discussions with erstwhile allies like TDP and JD(U) to explore possibilities of forming a government.

Top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the party could answer that question only on Wednesday, after the meeting of I.N.D.I.A. bloc leaders.

Addressing a press conference along with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge at the party headquarters, Rahul said the I.N.D.I.A. partners will discuss the results, where a decision on the question of staking a claim or sitting in the opposition will be taken.

“We are going to have a meeting tomorrow. These questions will be raised there. We respect our alliance partners. We won't speak without speaking to them,” Rahul said responding to a question on whether Congress would reach out to NDA allies TDP and JD(U) for forming the government or whether it has decided to sit in Opposition.

Kharge agreed with Rahul and said the roadmap to reach out to potential allies and other issues would be discussed in the meeting and not with the media as "Modi could get wind about our plans".

"We are part of a coalition...We do not have the answer today (decision on staking claim to form a government or not) but we will have an answer tomorrow," Rahul added.

Asked about which seat -- Wayanad or Raebareli -- he would vacate, Rahul said such a decision would be taken after discussions. "Now, we will have to decide on this. I will be here, I will talk to all. Right now, I have not decided anything," he said.

Kharge termed the election outcome a mandate against Modi and a "political and moral defeat" of the BJP. "This is the public's result and the public's and democracy's victory. We had been saying that this battle is between the public and Modi. We humbly accept the people's mandate," Kharge said.

Insisting that the voters did not give a complete majority to any single party, particularly the BJP that sought votes on the basis of "one person, one face", he said, "this is their (BJP's) political and moral defeat."
“Our bank accounts were seized and a campaign was launched against our leaders. Yet, the Congress carried out a positive election campaign raising issues such as inflation, unemployment, farmers’ and workers’ distress, misuse of Constitutional institutions,” Kharge said.

Rahul said India's poorest and backward stood up to save the Constitution.

"It was on my mind that the people of this country would rally together to save the Constitution. The first and biggest step towards saving the Constitution has been taken," he said.

“The main thing this election has said, the country has said, is that we don't want Narendra Modi, Amit Shah to be running this country,” he said.

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