Bharat Jodo Yatra: Congress will give non-BJP govt under Rahul Gandhi's leadership, says Mallikarjun Kharge

The Congress will give a non-BJP government to the country under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge said on Tuesday in his maiden public address after becoming Congress President.

Joining the Bharat Jodo Yatra here for the first time after being elected to the top party post, Kharge launched a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the Himachal Pradesh poll schedule was announced but not of Gujarat so that the PM can inaugurate many more bridges like the one that collapsed in Gujarat's Morbi.

He also slammed Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, saying he was reaching out to opposition parties while supporting the BJP on key bills in Parliament.

KCR is going to other states and meeting people, he went to Kolkata, then Punjab and Tamil Nadu, Kharge said referring to the Telangana CM's outreach efforts to Mamata Banerjee



and other non-Congress leaders.

"Look after your house first instead of weakening the party which is alive from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, is ready to fight.

"If you were against the BJP rule then why did you support the black farm laws brought by them, they (TRS) supported the triple talaq bill as well," said the 80-year-old leader who took over as Congress president on October 26.

Recalling his tenure as the leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, he said on the one hand the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) members used to support the BJP on various bills, and still do, on the other they say they want to bring a non-BJP government in the country.

"If anyone will bring a non-BJP government, then under Rahul Gandhi's leadership, under Congress' leadership, we will do it. We have that strength in us," Kharge asserted.