DHAKA: Rahul Gandhi, whose family have dominated post-independence politics in India, forecast an unlikely victory for his beleaguered Congress party in upcoming elections as he gave his first ever television interview on Monday.

The 43-year-old, the ruling Congress party’s de facto prime ministerial candidate, linked surging opposition leader Narendra Modi from the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) with religious riots in his state in 2002.

And dismissing polls which show his party heading for an electoral humiliation, Mr Gandhi declared he was ‘reasonably confident’ about securing a third consecutive term for the left-leaning Congress.

‘I will win the election,’ Gandhi told Times Now, according to transcript released by the channel, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1613 HRS, JAN 28, 2014