Rahul Gandhi said he “killed Rahul Gandhi” and did not care about his image, insisting that the Bharat Jodo Yatra should not be about him.
“Rahul Gandhi is in your mind. I have killed him. He is not there. Not in my mind at all. He is gone,” the Congress leader told reporters in Haryana on Sunday.
He was asked by a reporter how traveling changed his image.
“The person you are seeing is not Rahul Gandhi. You can see him. You don’t understand it… Read Hindu scriptures. Read about Shiv-ji (Lord Shiva), you will understand. Be shocked don’t.” Rahul Gandhi is in your head, not mine. He is in the head of the BJP, not mine,” Rahul Gandhi said.
Addressing the reporter who asked him the question, he said: “Why are you looking so surprised? I have nothing to do with the image, I am not interested in the image. You can give me whatever image you want – good or Bad.”
Back in November, he made similar comments suggesting that the campaign isn’t about him at all. “I let Rahul Gandhi go years ago. Rahul Gandhi is in your mind, not mine. Understand. Try and understand. (hearing applause) Look, someone is clapping. Do you understand? One person understood. This philosophy belongs to your country. Understand it, it will be good for you,” he said.
A reporter asked him to tell what attitude “Rahul Gandhi” was getting from the people of India during the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
At the time, the comments about “letting go of Rahul Gandhi” were seen by many as his refusal to return to the post of Congress President, which he had left after back-to-back election defeats to the BJP in 2019.
In the midst of his journey, which began in September a few weeks before the Congress presidential election, he has firmly distanced himself from the contest, insisting that he is not in the running for the top post.