Naidu also suggests that the terms “winner” and “loser” do not apply to the results of the poll, and insists that there’s no mandate for the Congress. Vehemently he promises that his party will continue to oppose political candidates of foreign origin - an issue he believes was not pushed far enough during the election campaign.

“They have not voted for Sonia Gandhi; they have not voted for the Congress Party; they have not voted for the Congress alliance. Please try to understand. Congress got 145 seats and the BJP got 138, and you say they are the winner and we are the loser? And the alliance also got 181 and 218. They got more seats than us but that doesn’t mean there is a mandate,” voices Naidu.

He continues, “Sonia is nowhere in the picture. The issue is foreign origin. We are very clear. That is our conviction today, tomorrow, day after tomorrow. Irrespective of Soniaji, we will pursue this issue. Even tomorrow if some American comes here and wants to become president or prime minister, we will pursue it.”

Naidu tells Thapar that his party is still stunned by the election defeat. “We have seen many ups and downs in politics. But one thing I must admit to you - we are shocked and we are in disbelief because we never expected this result. Now we are unable to come to an understanding (of) what exactly went wrong. So far, even (among) all the analysts in the country (and) political commentators also, nobody is able to reach the bottom of the actual reasoning for our setback in this election.”

When questioned about his boast at the Hyderabad National Executive meeting in January that his party would win 300 seats, he insists, “It was a target given by me to my party cadre, and then if you have a high target, you work hard. We did our best… we aimed at something, we could not achieve it, we accept it.”