'I am fighting an ideological battle to defend Indian way of doing things', says Gandhi

India's Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday (25) said that he has undergone a transformation since 2014 and does not imagine himself as the next prime minister of India.

During an interaction at an event organized by Indian Journalists Association in London, the Congress chief was asked if he views himself as the next prime minister, to which he responded: "I don't have these visions. I view myself as fighting an ideological battle and this change has come in me after 2014.

"I realised that there’s a risk to Indian state, to Indian way of doing things and I’m defending that. The important thing about me is I can see through hate and I’m proud of that."

Gandhi claimed there is a 'massive fightback' against what he called an 'attack' on institutions under the Modi government since 2014.

'I can tell you, the original idea of India is going to win, 100 per cent…We are defending an onslaught on the Indian Constitution and institutions. Me and the entire opposition see it as defending the nature of the Indian state (in the 2019 elections).'

Earlier this year, the Congress president had said that he will become the prime minister if his party emerges as the single largest among all its coalition partners in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"If the Congress party is the biggest party, yes," Rahul had said in response to a question on his aspiration to become prime minister during an interaction in Bengaluru.

Yesterday, in an interaction at the London School of Economics, the Congress chief said that next general election will be fought between the BJP and the opposition alliance.

He said that the first priority of the Congress is to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and stop the institutions in India from being encroached upon.

"The next election is pretty straightforward. On one side there is BJP and on the other side, there is every opposition party. The reason is, for the first time, Indian institutions are under attack," he said.

Today is the last day of Gandhi's four-day tour to Germany and the UK organized as part of his party's outreach programme.