Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Friday said none of the regional parties can represent a vision for the country and that is what makes his party different from others.
Gandhi, however, also said the Congress must work with other opposition parties for the 2024 general election and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge would evolve a strategy in this regard.
He said despite the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) organisational and money power, the Congress fought against it and won the Himachal Pradesh polls, adding that if the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was not put up as a "proxy to target the Congress" in Gujarat, the grand old party could have defeated the saffron party there as well.
"We are different from the large number of opposition parties. We work with them, we appreciate them, we believe they are important, but we are different. The way we are different is that we represent a national ideology. We represent a vision for the country," Gandhi told reporters here.
"None of the regional parties can represent a vision for the country. They can represent a vision for a community or a vision for a state, but they cannot represent a vision for the country," he said.
Gandhi said the Congress is competing with a vision that the BJP is proposing for the country.
"The space for the Congress party will always be there and the people who believe in the Congress party will always be there. It is a question of getting them excited, getting them motivated and getting them to believe in what they stand for, which the (Bharat Jodo) yatra has been very very good at doing," he said.
Asked about the party's performance in the recent Assembly polls, Gandhi said the Congress won in Himachal Pradesh despite being pitted against the organisational strength and money power of the BJP.
"Frankly, in Gujarat, if the AAP would not have been put up as a proxy and had not been used to target the Congress party, we would have probably defeated the BJP," he added.
Gandhi said though he does not believe in the BJP's principles, "they have complete clarity as regards who they are".
"The day the Congress party understands the depth of what it is and what it stands for, it will win every election," he said.
