Can Rahul Gandhi ‘replace’ PM Modi? Prashant Kishor says Congress leader still has…

Political analyst Prashant Kishor lauded Rahul Gandhi on Sunday for engineering a better-than-expected result for Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. The former politician however feels the Rae Bareli MP still has ‘miles to go’ before he can be seen as a national alternative to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Whenever a party sees a revival, its leader should get the credit. Congress contested under Rahul's leadership, so the credit for the party's performance should go to him. Just to put things in perspective, when former PM Indira Gandhi lost the Lok Sabha elections in 1977, Congress had won 154 seats. This time, Congress has won 99 under Rahul's leadership ... this shows that as a leader, Rahul has miles to go before we can say that he has arrived as a leader,” he told India TV.

Gandhi became the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha earlier this year after the INDIA bloc secured 235 seats. No Opposition party had been eligible to hold the post since 2014 as it required a minimum strength of 55 members.

Earlier this year, Kishor had opined that Gandhi should ‘just take a break’ if the Lok Sabha elections did not go well for the Congress. 

“If you lose three elections which you contested using your own strategies, then morally, ethically, strategically and tactically, you should just take a break,” he told India Today TV in May.

Kishor however believes that Rahul Gandhi still has a ‘long way to go’ before he can win more than 250 seats for the Congress. 

“Rahul Gandhi has certainly established himself as a leader of the Congress and is unlikely to see any challenge within the party in the next 5 or 10 years. But to establish himself as a leader of the country, he has a long way to go,” he opined in response to queries about a face-off against PM Modi.

(With inputs from agencies)