New Delhi:

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the India Bloc has decided that its choice for prime minister will be decided jointly by alliance members after winning the polls and expressed confidence that the NDA 2024 campaign will suffer the same setback as India Shines. Destiny 2004.

The former Congress president said the Lok Sabha polls were pitted between forces seeking to “undermine” the country’s constitution and democracy and those protecting them.

Addressing the Congress manifesto launch, Gandhi said it was a tighter contest than what the media had projected and expressed confidence of winning the polls.

“This election is about those who want to destroy the country’s constitution and democracy versus those who want to protect the constitution and democracy,” he said in reply to a question after the release of the party’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls. “We do believe that. , once we win this battle, it is very important that we look after the interests of the vast majority of the people. India is not run for two or three large corporate groups, but for the vast majority of the people. We are not a monopoly country. , we are a country where there is fair competition among businesses,” he said.

When asked who will be the face of the Prime Minister, Gandhi said, “The Indian group has decided that we are having an ideological election together and after winning the election, who will be the leader, the Prime Minister, the entire alliance will decide together.”

Responding to a question about the poll results, Mr Gandhi said that, unlike many political commentators, he could not predict the future, but expressed confidence that it would be a “much closer” election than the media had promoted.

Mr Gandhi asserted: “This is a close election and we will fight a good election and we will win it.”

He said a similar feeling was felt in the media in 2004 when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the prime minister and the ‘India Tejas’ movement was going on.

“So we are spreading similar ideas, India Tejas, with two to three new dimensions and with the full support of the monopolies in the country. But remember what happened with the India Tejas movement and remember who won that movement,” Mr. Gandhi asserted.

NDA loses in polls and UPA government sworn in.

Mr Gandhi said it was important to understand that this was a fundamentally different election because democracy and the constitution were not at as much risk as they are today.

He said the bank accounts of the Congress were frozen and the original path of going to the people was retained.

The party’s manifesto was not prepared by the Congress but by the people of India and “we have just written it down,” he said, adding that the document was only “the voice of India”.

“The vote share in this election was between 2% and 5% compared to the rest of India. Everything India wants is in the manifesto,” he said.

The Lok Sabha polls will begin on April 19 and end on June 1 and will be held in seven phases. Results will be announced on June 4.

The manifesto titled ‘Nyay Patra’ was launched at the AICC headquarters in the presence of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party president Sonia Gandhi. It focuses on five “pillars of justice” and the 25 guarantees under them.