Bengaluru, May 8 (Agencies): Congress president Rahul Gandhi today said he is willing to become Prime Minister, if Congress comes to power in 2019 elections with full majority.
Speaking at a gathering of prominent personalities in Bengaluru, Congress president said "Yes why not," when asked if he can be Prime Minister in 2019 if Congress emerges as the single largest party.
Rahul was speaking at the launch of Samruddha Bharat, a secular, progressive platform of citizens in Bengaluru.
Rahul asserted that it was “highly unlikely the BJP will form the next government” and that it was “next to impossible that Narendra Modi will be the next prime minister.” He based his prediction on opposition parties uniting to defeat the BJP. “The deadliest thing in Indian politics is opposition unity. It smashes everything in its path.”
With a united opposition, Rahul predicted that the BJP will not be able to repeat its 2014 feat. “Let’s do the math. An opposition alliance in Uttar Pradesh will guarantee that the BJP does not get more than 5 seats. You add up the BSP, SP and Congress, that’s 70%. This will take the BJP straight from 270 seats to 200. And at 200, Modi is not PM anyway because none of his allies will support him over Nitin Gadkari or someone else,” he said.
“In the entire northern belt the Congress practically ended up with zero seats last time. There's no way we're getting less than 20 seats in Rajasthan. We'll win Madhya Pradesh, we'll win Chhattisgarh. So state after state where BJP swept, they will not sweep. If you remove Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, you have a BJP that's unlikely to win the election,” he claimed.
This is the second time Rahul Gandhi has made his ambition clear about becoming Prime Minister. Rahul Gandhi is in Karnataka for campaigning before the state elections scheduled to be held on May 12.
In September last year speaking to students in Berkley university in US, Rahul Gandhi had said he was "absolutely ready" to be the party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2019 general elections.