On Rahul Gandhi losing Amethi — and Smriti Irani winning it;

For five years, Smriti Irani was a regular presence in Amethi. She got infrastructure investment done, which improved local lives. She got the money for projects.

Rahul Gandhi doesn’t even go to Amethi, he has agents and so on there — but in modern politics, hard work pays.

I would say Rahul’s position is now in jeopardy because a Congress president who does not have Amethi has been humiliated — Wayanad doesn’t matter.

Ms Popular in Amethi! Smriti Irani worked for the people of Amethi. They have now rewarded her. (Photo: PTI)

On the election results;

These are absolutely revolutionary results! I expected the NDA to form the government again, but BJP not to repeat its sparkling majority. I thought they might get around 240-250 seats, I didn’t think they would have repeated the success in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan after the Assembly polls. The UP results last time were so peculiar that they looked set to lose around 30 seats in the state. West Bengal, I felt, well, they might not get more than 12. So, I thought I'd take off 30-40 seats.

This is an amazing result now though I haven’t seen the vote share.

But this is phenomenal.

On whether the winning factor was only Narendra Modi;

Yeah, well, the opposition chose that. The whole idea of Mamata Banerjee forming a big gathbandhan was to get Modi out. It was like the 1971 elections where Indira Gandhi was the issue and she came up with ‘garibi hatao’. What the BJP did, was, ok, if you want to make Modi the issue, we’ll make Modi the issue. They didn’t speak about BJP but only about Modi. And he is a much better communicator than any of these people. And he happens to be a hard worker, he did 144 campaign trips. These have paid off.

'The Congress made this election about Modi. And the BJP made that its strength.' (Photo: India Today)

If you look at how much he has delivered on ground, when it comes to rural housing, toilets, 'Swachh Bharat', 'Ayushman Bharat', that’s a growth rate of 7%. On the ground, people voted for roti, kapda, makaan — people just didn’t realise how deeply inside the rural population Modi had penetrated.

More women have voted for Modi than ever before.

On options for Rahul Gandhi;

It all depends on what he makes of it. He is a lifetime party president, it’s a family firm, no one can remove him.

It is quite clear that he misread the election campaign like with slogans like 'Chowkidar chor hai' and the Rafale deal. It reached the Supreme Court even. But I don't think the Congress figured out what the hell happened!

You never call your PM a chor.

'Rahul Gandhi's visits to temples was only for show. Indian voters are not stupid.' (Photo: PTI)

Rahul's Brahmanical exhibition of going to temples was also just dramatics. People knew that he was going to temples only for show. He wasn’t a real bhakt! When Modi goes and spends time in Kedarnath, he actually is religious. Rahul is not religious.

Indian voters are not stupid.

On a resurrection for the Congress party;

People have rejected dynasty — they have asked, how have you come to the top? Was it through hard work, or have you inherited it? The party has no glue to hang together, it’s no more a cardre-based party. It would need somebody who has the hunger to build the party when it comes to cardre in the next 10 years. What is the Congress party’s core ideology? It used to secularism, socialism, soft Hinduism. Congress needs to have a good chintan baithak.

I don’t see Rahul stepping down. What I can say is that now, Nehru-Gandhi yug khatam hogaya and Modi yug aagya.

This is the end of the Nehru-Gandhi era.

On whether Priyanka Gandhi should have played a bigger role;

You can’t play a big role only in an election! The picture of Priyanka Gandhi sailing down the Ganga in a boat, like Cleopatra, was so offensive! The days have gone when people would jump to touch her saree — it’s not like that anymore.

'Priyanka Gandhi sailing down the Ganga on a boat, like Cleopatra, was offensive!' (Photo: PTI)

Even rural India is not like that. It has been penetrated by mobile phones, the people there have aspirations.

Somehow, Modi strikes a chord with them.

On the Congress' NYAY;

I admire the label ‘Nyay’ — this is the first scheme the Congress had brought which was not an English title.

'NYAY scheme was a failure. But at least its title was in Hindi!' (Photo: PTI)

It is not a new scheme, 72,000 is an awkward number, make it 15,000 or 50,000. It did not make any impact. Somebody must have told Rahul that you keep the corruption theme and you will break Modi — but that did not happen.

On economic moves now;

In the first five years, Narendra Modi had established a growth rate of 7%, brought inflation down, they are beginning to sort out the non-performing assets, that’s a big reform. This will bring down credit. The next step would be to clean up the banking system and sell it and then figure out how they can increase private investment.

On whether unemployment was a factor in this election;

I have always doubted the data — I just don’t understand how respectable experts can differ so much on what the reality is. I don’t understand how an economy growing at 7% could possibly have the highest unemployment in 46 years!

The elections are over, get a good international team and find out why Indian numbers are utterly pathetic. This unemployment discourse had no effect on the results.

Also read: Uttar Pradesh poll results 2019 live: Rahul Gandhi concedes defeat in Amethi. Smriti Irani emerges as the giant killer