Rahul Gandhi slams Narendra Modi's acquittal over 2002 Gujarat riots

New Delhi:

Rahul Gandhi on Sunday sought to boost his party’s morale by affirming there would be a Congress-led UPA-3 as he hit out at Narendra Modi for “inexcusable failure” of governance in the 2002 riots for which he demanded “legal accountability”.

Debunking opinion polls predicting heavy losses for the Congress, the party’s chief campaigner admitted there was a “certain amount of anti-incumbency against us”, but maintained it would do better than in the 2009 polls. But he refused to hazard a guess on the number of seats the party expected as he was not a “soothsayer”.

In his sharpest attack on Mr Modi over the post-Godhra riots, he dismissed talk of a clean chit to the Gujarat Chief Minister as “politically expedient” but “far too premature”.

Saying Mr Modi was answerable on moral grounds, Mr Gandhi said: “Beyond that there should be a legal accountability for the clear and inexcusable failure of governance under him”.

He differed with finance minister P. Chidambaram that the Congress was an underdog and faced an uphill task.

Rahul Gandhi also rubbished the perception that the Congress was losing allies, but acknowledged it lost the DMK and Trinamul Congress. Asked if it could “do business” with these two, Mr Gandhi replied: “We are always willing to work with people who share our ideology and political philosophy.”