People see Rahul Gandhi as an effective opponent to BJP, says Tharoor

The BJP had "very successfully caricatured" Rahul Gandhi but the tactic is no longer working because the people now see the Congress vice-president as an "effective opponent" to the ruling party, former minister Shashi Tharoor has said.

Rahul Gandhi

The Congress MP in an interview said the narrative had "changed very, very clearly" in the past few months and people were now openly expressing "doubts and misgivings" about how the BJP government was performing.

People are also more willing to see the Congress as a viable alternative to the BJP, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said. "The BJP had very successfully caricatured Rahul in the past. That is no longer working because Rahul is seen as a rather effective opponent to the BJP...As this changed narrative proceeds, you are going to find more and more momentum behind the Congress," he asserted.

Tharoor said a change was visible with the Congress's recent victory in the by-election in Gurdaspur in Punjab and of its ally in Vengara in Kerala, and claimed the BJP's attempts to conduct yatras in places such as Kerala and Gujarat had "fallen flat".

"I also feel very strongly that the people are beginning to ask when is the government going to keep the promises it has made...We are already riding much higher in people's estimation than we were in the April or May of 2014, of that there is no doubt," the leader said.