Rahul can make 'match' with Modi, popular party, country : Jyotiraditya

New Delhi, May 21: Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia said Sunday that party vice president Rahul Gandhi would "perfectly match" Prime Minister Narendra Modi and have the ability to run both the party and the country. Speaking at the round-table of editors of Aaj Tak, Scindia said: "Rahul Gandhi has tremendous potential, he has deep sense of grassroot issues."  am personally convinced that Rahul Gandhi is to lead the party and lead the country."

"Rahul Gandhi can definitely match Modi. He will challenge Modi and the Congress will go to people with the blueprint that the party and Rahul Gandhi are working on... I feel that we should move ahead under his leadership. We will form government in 2019 under his leadership." In response to a question on Scindia taking over as Leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, replacing Mallikarjun Kharge, he said: "What fate has in store..., what strategy the party has, is something I am not privy to."

Recalling his experience in politics in the past 15 years, the Congress leader said: "I am a Congress party worker and I always have confidence."He agreed that his party needed a new blueprint. The Congress needs to focus on the bounce back states. "We have to go back to the drawing board, we have a lot of good things in the last ten years, but it's not enough to restore people's confidence, we should go back with a new blueprint," he said.

Scindia also said that unlike in the past, when a strong Centre built strong states, the situation has reversed. "Earlier, you had a strong Centre which would build strong states. Now you need strong states to build a strong Centre. I think that is the recalibration of strategy that must take place in the Congress," he said. Asked about the opposition's choice of candidate for the Presidential poll in July, Scindia said Congress was trying to evolve a consensus among all opposition parties on a common candidate.

"We all want to get a consensus candidate from opposition parties, discussions are going on, Congress can not take the decision," he said. Asked whether President Pranab Mukherjee would be their candidate, he replied: "The president made it clear that all the parties will only contest when the consensus comes."