Ready to become prime minister, says Rahul

Congress president Rahul Gandhi said today he is ready to occupy the prime minister's post if his party emerges as the "biggest" party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, making known his ambition for the topmost executive post.

"Well, it depends....it depends on how well the Congress does in the election....I mean, if it emerges as the biggest party, yes," Gandhi said, when asked during an interaction here if he would be the next prime minister.

This is not the first time Gandhi has spoken about his prime ministerial ambition.

In an interaction at the Berkley University in the US in September last year, Gandhi had said he was "absolutely ready" to be the prime ministerial candidate of the Congress in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Amid the cut and thrust of the Karnataka Assembly polls, Gandhi said he is "pretty confident" that Narendra Modi would not be the next prime minister, and if the Congress acts as a "platform" (with other parties in a coalition), the BJP does not stand a chance of winning the elections.

"It is highly unlikely that BJP will form the next government, and the second part is that it is close to impossible that Modi will be the next prime minister," Gandhi said, speaking at a function where he launched 'Samruddha Bharat Foundation'.

He said the opposition unity would not allow the BJP to remain in power.

Gandhi asserted the Congress would win the Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Referring to the BJP and RSS, Gandhi said the forces hisparty was fighting against were trying to disrupt open- mindedatmosphere, peace and the brotherhood that existed in India.

Drawing a comparison between the RSS and Muslim Brotherhood, Gandhi said their agenda was to come topower, and then capture institutions.

"The BJP and RSS will repeat one more cycle of getting elected democratically and then discard democracy," he alleged.

"The RSS over here and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt,Pakistan, Tunisia, Turkey....they are doing the same thing. The RSS and Muslim Brotherhood do not see elections the way we seethem. We win an election and we are okay with losing anelection," he said.

Gandhi said the Congress never faced an "existential crisis" on losing an election but the BJP and the RSS "see