Amethi :Putting to rest all speculation, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi Saturday said the party will not support the Third Front to form the next government.

Speaking to reporters after campaigning in his constituency of Amethi, Rahul said the party will get enough seats to form the government on their own. “We will not support a Third Front… we will get the numbers,” Rahul said after being asked whether the party would sit in opposition.

HT was the first to report that Rahul was strongly in favour of sitting in the opposition and rebuilding the organisation rather than forming a government with the help of multiple parties.

Claiming Rahul’s move to be mere damage control, PTI quoted BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi as saying: “They thought even if we lose, we will help third front. Several Congress leaders made such statements. When they realised that it was damaging them, then Rahul ‘bhaiyya’ tried to change it. They are shaken.”

Reacting to Modi’s plan to campaign in Amethi on Monday, Rahul said “anyone was free to campaign anywhere”. Rahul, however, did not clarify whether he was planning to go to Varanasi to campaign. Amethi goes to polls on May 7 and Varanasi on May 12.

On Priyanka donning a bigger role — she held closed door meetings with party workers to finalise poll strategy for May 7 — Rahul said he would support her in whatever she does.

Addressing a rally in his constituency Amethi, Gandhi also asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its prime ministerial nominee Modi to come clean on the source of funds.

“They (BJP) do politics of two-three corporates as they gift them ‘mota paisa’ (hefty money). From where is the money for big cutouts and posters coming,” Gandhi said in the Congress bastion.