Rahul Gandhi likes to keep it simple. Walking briskly, with a hand in his pocket, the 53-year-old Congress leader answered the question 'why a white T-shirt' (now his signature style) during a campaign trail in Karnataka.
“Transparency and simplicity. And I don't care much about clothes. I prefer it simple,” the Congress leader said as he boarded a helicopter.
Mr Gandhi, a former party chief, played interviewer for Congress chief M Kharge and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. This was part of a “light rapid fire” and video chat between the three leaders.
Asked by Mr Gandhi about what seems good and what is bad during the campaign, Mr Kharge said: “There is nothing bad. It's good because we are doing all this for the country. The one who is spoiling the country, when we try to stop him, we feel good. At least we are doing something good for the country.”
He turned to Siddaramaiah in the car and continued the “light rapid fire”, asking the Congress veteran what he would choose: power or ideology.
“Ideology,” the veteran said, explaining, “It's because ideology is always important. You have to present the ideology of the party and the programs of the party to the people. And when you are in power, you have to tell people what our interests are. Only then will the people surely appreciate our stand and bless us.”
At this point the President of Congress, sitting in the front, intervenes.
“Power comes and goes. But staying true to the ideology is more important. Our leaders sacrificed for this,” Kharge said.
“I agree with both Kharge ji and Siddaramaiah ji. In my opinion, you cannot run as a large organization, you cannot run for power without a clear understanding of the ideology. And we have to convince people of our ideology, which is in favor. poor, pro-women, plural, treating everyone equally. So the political struggle at the organizational level, at the national level, is always about ideology,” Mr Gandhi agreed.
Mr Gandhi, who made his poll debut in 2004, was asked what is the best thing about campaigning.
“When it ends,” was the answer.
“Look, for me, this campaign has been going on for almost 70 days now. Bharat Jodo Yatra was not a campaign, but in terms of work it was more difficult than this. Non-stop. So I have been working for a long time. You know, this is the strange thing. I really like the speeches. It makes you think about what the country needs,” he further explained.
Karnataka has 28 Lok Sabha seats and elections in the state are held in two phases. Voting for 14 seats was completed on April 26 and the remaining 14 seats will be voted on May 7. The counting of votes is scheduled for June 4.
In 2019, the BJP almost won the state by winning 25 of the 28 seats, while the Congress and JD-S — who were alliance partners in the state — could win only one seat each.
This time, the BJP and JD-S are in a coalition with the former contesting 25 seats while the latter contests three seats.