Congress leader Rahul Gandhi believes that the new NDA government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, won’t survive its third term as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) failed to secure a simple majority of 272 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

In his first interview since the Lok Sabha poll results were declared, Gandhi told the Financial Times that the Indian political landscape has undergone a “tectonic shift”. He described the numbers in the Lok Sabha as “very fragile,” suggesting that that the “smallest disturbance can drop the government”.

“Basically, one ally has to turn the other way,” Gandhi told FT.

Without taking any names, Gandhi claimed that many from the NDA are “in touch with us”, and that there is “great discontent” within the Modi camp.

Last week, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge also echoed this sentiment, stating that the BJP-led government has been formed by mistake and could collapse anytime. “NDA government has been formed by mistake. Modi ji doesn’t have the mandate. It’s a minority government. This government can fall anytime,” Kharge said in Bengaluru.

In the latest Lok Sabha election, the opposition INDIA bloc performed much better than predicted by exit polls, securing 234 out of 543 seats, compared to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s 293 seats. Gandhi also won both the Raebareli and Wayanad Lok Sabha seats by huge margins.

Gandhi said that the Indian electorate has rejected the politics of hatred and anger. “The idea that you can spread hatred, you can spread anger and you can reap benefits of that — the Indian people have rejected it in this election,”

“The idea of Modi and the image of Modi has been destroyed,” he added.

“The space in the Indian political system has been blown open.”

“The party that spent the last 10 years talking about Ayodhya has been wiped out in Ayodhya… Essentially what has happened is that the basic architecture of BJP — the idea of creating religious hatred — that has collapsed,” he added.

In the Faizabad seat, which includes Ayodhya and the Ram Temple, BJP’s Lallu Singh was defeated by Samajwadi Party’s Dalit candidate Awadhesh Prasad by 54,567 votes.

Gandhi said, “That’s also why the coalition will struggle,” adding that “what worked for Mr. Narendra Modi in 2014 and 2019 is not working now.”

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed the government, but unlike his previous two terms, he had to rely on allies to cross the halfway mark in the 543-member house.

Rahul Gandhi played a key role in the opposition INDIA alliance, comprising over two dozen parties, which won more than 230 seats, reducing the BJP’s share by over 60 seats.

Gandhi attributed the alliance’s success in part to the two Bharat Jodo Yatras he undertook where he met with people and heard their grievances.

“The judicial system, the media, the institutional framework – all were shut (for the opposition), and so we decided we have to literally, physically go do it.”

He added, “A lot of the ideas that succeeded in this election came from that walk – and they came not from us but from the people of India.”

“We fought with our hands tied behind our back…and Indian people, poor people, knew exactly what they had to do,” he said.