The Congress on Thursday said Rahul Gandhi was the only political leader in the country who consistently fought the Narendra Modi government on every national concern, from the economy to China and divisive politics, while the record of many other leaders in the Opposition camp was suspect.

Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said: “Rahul Gandhi is the only political leader in India who has day in and day out targeted the BJP. The Congress is the only political party which never had an alliance with the BJP. Mamata Banerjee will praise the RSS in the morning and say something else in the evening.”

The Trinamul Congress had aligned with the BJP in the past, with Mamata being a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Ramesh, probably emboldened by the response to the Bharat Jodo Yatra, spoke the party’s mind on other leaders as well.

He said: “The AAP is the BJP’s B-team. The CPM in Kerala is the BJP’s A team, not B team. Pinarayi Vijayan is Mundu Modi (Modi in a dhoti). In terms of management style, there is absolutely no difference between the Kerala chief minister and the Prime Minister. At the national level, if the CPM wants to support the Congress, they are welcome. But in Kerala, the CPM and the BJP are two sides of the same coin.”

Addressing the media in Kollam, Ramesh continued: “Mamata is singularly responsible for the BJP’s rise in Bengal. The CPM in Kerala is supporting the BJP. Ideologically, the extreme Left wants to fight with the extreme Right. The CPM knows the Congress can be weakened in Kerala only by encouraging the BJP. The CPM’s perspective is different elsewhere. In Manipur, both the CPI and the CPM are our allies. In Tamil Nadu, the CPI and the CPM are with us.”

The Congress leader recalled: “The veteran E.M.S. Namboodiripad once said ‘we will align with the devil to defeat the Congress’. They actually did it in 1989 by aligning with the BJP to support the V.P. Singh government.”

Demonstrating unusual belligerence, Ramesh said: “So far, every political party which aligned with the Congress wanted to keep the Congress weak. We won’t allow this anymore. The Bharat Jodo Yatra is aimed at strengthening the Congress.”

Although there are growing signs of Rahul’s reluctance to become the Congress president, Ramesh dropped hints seeking to suggest the Wayanad MP has pre-eminence in the Opposition camp.

He said: “Rahul raises all the relevant issues. Yesterday, he talked about Chinese incursion. Why is the CPM silent? Rahul talks about one industrialist being given ports, airports, power plants…. That’s why the Enforcement Directorate was set upon him (Rahul). The ED interrogated him for 55 hours in a completely bogus case.”

The Congress has not spoken against Opposition unity but has placed revival of the party as its central agenda, conveying a message to prospective allies that bullying tactics and political blackmail won’t be tolerated. It has realised that some parties in the Opposition camp have a sinister agenda and the Congress will adopt a self-defeatist path by yielding to their pressures.

Ramesh indicated another Yatra next year, saying: “We can have another West to East Yatra, starting from Porbandar in Gujarat to Parashuram Kund in Arunachal Pradesh. The Bharat Jodo Yatra will transform Indian politics. The BJP is attacking the Yatra everyday, trying to invent diversions, because of the massive response. The Yatra has created a new image of the Congress. What we are seeing is the emergence of a new Congress.”