The BJP had “very successfully caricatured” Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, but the tactic is no longer working because the people now see him as an “effective opponent” to the ruling party, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in an interview to the PTI.

The narrative had “changed very very clearly” in the past few months, and the people were now expressing “doubts and misgivings” about how the Modi government was performing, he said. People were also more willing to see the Congress as a viable alternative to the BJP, the Thiruvananthapuram MP added.