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<\/div>\nRahul Gandhi said the Congress was holding regular talks with other Opposition parties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
New Delhi\/Washington: <\/b><\/p>\n
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday expressed confidence in an united opposition’s potential to remove the BJP from power after next year’s national elections.<\/p>\n
Mr Gandhi, who is currently on a US tour, was interacting with journalists at the National Press Club in Washington yesterday<\/p>\n
“I think the Congress party will do very well in the next election. I think it will surprise people. Just do the math, a united opposition will defeat the BJP on its own,” he said.<\/p>\n
With less than a year left for the parliament elections, he said the Congress was holding regular talks with other Opposition parties.<\/p>\n
“The opposition is pretty well united. We are having conversations with all the Opposition (parties). I think quite a lot of good work is happening there. It’s a complicated discussion because there are spaces where we are competing with the Opposition. So a bit of give and take is required,” he said.<\/p>\n
“But I am confident that it (a grand Opposition alliance) will happen,” he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Gandhi also accused the government of “capturing” institutions, a charge levelled by various opposition leaders in the past and denied by the ruling party.<\/p>\n
The Congress leader opened up on losing his Parliament membership over his conviction in a defamation case, saying it was “an advantage” for him.<\/p>\n
“It allows me to completely redefine myself. I think they have given me a gift, frankly. They don’t realize it, but they have,” he said.<\/p>\n
He also said he wasn’t concerned about threats to his life and that can’t be the reason for backing down.<\/p>\n
“I am not concerned about threats of assassination. Everybody has to die. That’s what I learnt from my grandmother and father – you don’t back down because of something like that,” the Congress leader said.<\/p>\n
His grandmother Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her bodyguards in 1984 while his father Rajiv Gandhi was killed in a suicide attack in 1991. Both were former prime ministers.<\/p>\n
Mr Gandhi’s US tour comes weeks ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit later this month.<\/p>\n