The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Friday (May 8, 2026) said only the Congress could defeat the BJP, calling the contest a clash between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) “ideology of hatred and partition” and the Congress’s “ideology of love and unity.”

“This is a battle of ideologies. Other parties cannot take them on. Ultimately, only the Congress will stand against them and defeat them. The Congress will defeat Amit Shah and [Narendra] Modi,” Mr. Gandhi told a cheering crowd on Khandsa Road during former MP Brijendra Singh’s “Sadbhav Yatra.”

Mr. Gandhi’s presence at the padayatra was marked by a show of unity in the faction-ridden Haryana unit. The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Rao Narender Singh, Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala joined him on stage.

Both Mr. Narender Singh and Mr. Hooda, who had earlier dismissed the padayatra as Mr. Brijendra Singh’s “personal effort” and stayed away, congratulated him for the initiative.

On U.S. trade deal

Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Gandhi accused him of attacking the democratic system and Ambedkar’s Constitution, vowing that the Congress would not forget it.

“Mark my words, the Congress will defeat Narendra Modi. Then you will see what action we take,” he said, calling Mr. Modi “compromised” and arguing no other Prime Minister could have signed a deal with the United States where India “got nothing.”

He claimed the deal will harm Indian farmers and jeopardise the agriculture sector.

Mr. Gandhi cited two reasons for it [for the deal]: the “Epstein File,” which he said contained Mr. Modi’s “entire history,” and a pending U.S. criminal case against businessman [Gautam] Adani. He also claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump had said he could “end Narendra Modi’s career in a single minute.”

Mr. Gandhi’s participation also underscored the close ties between Mr. Brijendra Singh’s family and the Gandhis. Mr. Singh’s father, former Union minister Choudhary Birender Singh, was close to late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. The gesture boosts Mr. Brijendra Singh’s standing in the State unit and undercuts his rivals.

Mr. Brijendra Singh, who began the Statewide padayatra last October after Assembly elections, said the ‘Sadbhav Yatra’ had run for over seven months, covering 2,700 km and 85 Assembly constituencies to promote harmony and counter the BJP’s “propagated hatred.” In the 2024 election, he lost the Uchana Kalan seat by a margin of 32 votes.

Inspired by Mr. Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, the march flagged issues from international to local, including electoral malpractice, unemployment, farmers’ distress, law and order, MGNREGA, and Dalit concerns, while alleging BJP government inaction, Mr. Brijendra Singh said.