Don't have visions of becoming Prime Minister: Rahul Gandhi

Congress President Rahul Gandhi said Saturday that he has no visions of becoming prime minister, and that he views himself as "fighting an ideological battle".

"I don't have these visions. I view myself as fighting an ideological battle and this change has come in me after 2014. I realised that there's a risk to Indian state, to the Indian way of doing things and I'm defending that. I just get up in morning think of how do I defend the Indian institutional structure and how do I make sure that the country I love works together," Gandhi said after he was asked whether he saw himself as the next prime minister of India. 

Also read: People support leaders like Trump and Modi because they don't have jobs, says Rahul Gandhi

Gandhi made his comments in London, where he was speaking with the Indian Journalists' Association. 

Gandhi had in May said in Bengaluru that he could become PM if the Congress emerged as the single largest party after the 2019 elections.  

“Well it depends on how well the Congress party does. If the Congress party is the biggest party, yes,” Gandhi had said. 

And in September last year, he told a group of students at the University of California, Berkeley that if his party wanted, he was ready to be prime minister. 

Gandhi on Saturday also stepped up his attack on the BJP and RSS, saying people supported populist leaders like US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi because they are angry about not having jobs. He added that instead of solving the problem, these leaders ride that anger and damage their countries. 

Gandhi was on a four-day visit to Germany and the UK to speak on the "overall performance" of the Modi government. He will however probably be best remembered for saying the Congress was not involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. 

The riots were triggered by the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi, Rahul's grandmother. 

Some 3,000 Sikh died in Delhi during the progrom and 8,000 across the country. A Congress government was in power at the time.