Wrong to think Congress not effective Opposition: Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said there was a wrong perception being created that the Congress was not effectively doing its job as the opposition and was not standing up to the BJP. "Whatever perception is there, it's not true. I have been meeting people on the ground, the farmers, youths and the message that we are getting is different. I should not say this, but the opposition has no control over the press, the BJP controls the press. They control the institutional structure, they have put the judiciary under pressure. On the ground, the situation is different."

He said he was not perturbed about Congress leaders quitting and joining the BJP. "I was just told by a Shiv Sena MLA (Uddhav group) of how he was offered '50 cr to join the Shinde camp but he didn't go. So, in a way, this is a cleanup of the opposition. All the corrupt people who are being sold for '10 crore, '50 crore are the ones going to the BJP. It's good that they are going, we don't have a shortage of good people in the county, they will come with us," he said.

On demands for stopping his Yatra in Maharashtra, Rahul dared the state government to do so. "If someone has an opinion, he should have the freedom to express it. If the government feels the Yatra is a threat, then it should try to stop us."