Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said he will engage in an “ideological battle” with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh with “10 times more vigour than the last five years”, PTI reported. Gandhi made the comments a day after resigning as the party’s chief.

“I am with the poor, farmers and labourers,” he said. “This fight [against BJP and RSS] will continue. Aakraman ho raha hai, maza aa raha hai [Attacks are coming and I am enjoying].” He spoke to the media after appearing at a local court in Mumbai for the hearing in a defamation case filed by an RSS worker.

“I did not say anything in the court, I had to appear,” ANI quoted Gandhi as saying. “It’s a fight of ideologies.” The Congress leader added that he had said conveyed whatever he wanted to in his resignation note.

Gandhi, in his resignation letter, said he had no hatred or anger towards the BJP, “but every living cell in my body instinctively resists their idea of India”. “The stated objectives of the RSS, the capture of our country’s institutional structure, is now complete,” he said. “Our democracy has been fundamentally weakened. “

Bharatiya Janata Party leaders on Thursday continued to criticise Gandhi’s decision. While BJP’s Karnataka Twitter handle alleged it was a ploy to get a non-Gandhi leader to rebuild the party, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi called Gandhi’s resignation a “brand new drama of the Grand Old Party”.

Gandhi noted that the Congress to elect a new president without further delay. Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party in 2017, said he was resigning as accountability was critical for the party’s growth. He added that he had no hatred or anger towards the BJP but only resisted its idea of India.