Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Saturday declared that defeating Prime Minister Narendra Modi was now a “done deal”, expressing confidence that the Opposition would remove the BJP leader from power and pointing to what he described as growing fear within the ruling establishment.
Addressing the Bharat Summit 2026 in Hyderabad, Rahul Gandhi said the political battle against the BJP had reached a turning point, adding that the change was already visible on the streets and in the national capital.
“I can tell you already, with confidence, that we are going to defeat PM Modi, and we are going to get rid of PM Modi. And you can see it, you can see it on our streets, you can see it in Delhi, you can see it in the fear that the Prime Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah have. This is already a done deal,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi’s remarks came as he outlined what he described as the Opposition’s journey from being overwhelmed by the BJP’s political dominance after 2014 to finding a way to challenge it through direct engagement with people. He said the Opposition had taken nearly a decade to understand the scale of the political transformation that followed the BJP’s rise to power.
“I would be lying if I said the Opposition was not in shock. We were in shock, not for a year, not for two years, but for an entire decade,” he said.
‘WE FOUND OUR COUNTERATTACK THROUGH PEOPLE’
Explaining how the Congress responded to the BJP’s political and financial dominance, Rahul Gandhi said conventional methods of political communication had stopped working. He claimed that the ruling party had built an overwhelming presence across television, social media and other platforms, making it difficult for Opposition parties to reach voters.
“Every instrument that we were accustomed to and that had once been effective, the media, press conferences, interviews and public meetings, none of them worked,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said the Congress eventually realised that its biggest strength lay in establishing a direct connection with people rather than trying to match the BJP’s financial resources and institutional influence. He credited thousands of Congress workers and leaders for launching this counterattack through the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which began in Kanyakumari and ended in Kashmir.
“People give me credit for this, but I don’t like taking credit. Thousands and thousands of us in the Congress party began our counterattack by walking from the southernmost tip of our country, Kanyakumari, to Kashmir,” he said.
He argued that the experience had shown the party that sustained public engagement could challenge even a politically powerful establishment.
RAHUL GANDHI QUESTIONS MAHARASHTRA ELECTION RESULTS
Rahul Gandhi also renewed his allegations of irregularities in India’s electoral process, citing the Maharashtra Assembly elections as an example. He claimed that seven million new voters were added to the electoral rolls in the three months between the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Maharashtra, with all of them voting for the BJP.
The Congress leader said his party had received almost the same number of votes in both elections despite the dramatically different outcomes.
“We started looking into the details. What did we find? We found that we had received almost exactly the same number of votes in both elections. Seven million new voters were magically added in three months, and every single one of those seven million voters voted for the BJP, helping it win the election,” he alleged.
Gandhi said similar examples could be found in other states and argued that the findings pointed to a breakdown of India’s democratic system.
RAHUL GANDHI ATTACKS MODI-ADANI RELATIONSHIP
The Congress leader also targeted the BJP’s economic model, alleging that the relationship between political power and big business had weakened democratic competition. Taking aim at industrialist Gautam Adani, Gandhi said the businessman’s rise in wealth reflected what he described as the growing fusion of politics and business under the Modi government.
“Today, we have a businessman in this country who, before the BJP came to power, was the 600th richest man in the world. Within a few months, he became the second-richest man in the world. How did he become so wealthy? Through a fusion of politics and business,” he said.
“The line between business and politics, between Mr Adani and Mr Modi, has evaporated. It no longer exists,” he alleged.
Rahul Gandhi pointed to Adani Group’s expansion across airports, ports, bridges, cement, defence and infrastructure, questioning the concentration of economic power. He also claimed that the BJP’s assets had increased eleven-fold over the past decade, giving it a financial advantage that Opposition parties could not match.
RAHUL GANDHI CALLS RULING PARTY FASCIST
During his address, Rahul Gandhi also described what he called the rise of fascist tendencies in politics, drawing a distinction between people who believe they have all the answers and those who remain curious and willing to listen.
He said the first group tends to consider itself superior, refuses to acknowledge mistakes and resorts to shouting rather than engaging in discussions. “In politics, we call them fascists,” he said.
Gandhi argued that such tendencies become prominent when democratic systems and institutions begin to collapse, describing the current political contest as a battle between these two contrasting groups.
He also accused the government of using institutions against Opposition leaders, claiming that he personally faced 45 cases and that several Opposition leaders had to travel across states to attend court proceedings.
RAHUL GANDHI ON DELEGATES DENIED INDIA ENTRY
At the beginning of his address, Gandhi apologised to international delegates and leaders who were scheduled to attend the Bharat Summit but were allegedly denied permission to enter India.
“I would like to apologise to the many delegates and leaders who were scheduled to attend but were not allowed to come by the Government of India. I apologise. It is not our fault, but it gives you a sense of what we are dealing with in our country,” he said.
The remarks came amid a controversy over the denial of entry to foreign speakers invited to the two-day summit.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had on Friday claimed that 115 of the 315 speakers cleared by the Ministry of External Affairs had either been refused entry into India or had their visas cancelled, apparently on the instructions of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Responding to the controversy, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said visa matters were sovereign functions of any country or government.
The two-day Bharat Summit, backed by the Congress-led Telangana government, has brought together policymakers, political leaders, thinkers and representatives from countries across the Global South and Global North. The event is aimed at providing a platform for discussions on global cooperation, democracy and economic justice.
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