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Ashok Gehlot's take on next Congress chief: 'If Rahul Gandhi doesn't…
The election for the party chief is slated to take place between August 21 and September 20 and the Wayanad MP has not yet made his decision on the issue clear. His mother Sonia Gandhi is currently heading the post.
Rajasthan chief minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot on Monday said the grand old party is ‘unanimously’ in favour of Rahul Gandhi becoming the next party president. “If Rahul Gandhi does not become the party president, it will be a disappointment for the Congressmen in the country," he added.
The election for the party chief is slated to take place between August 21 and September 20 and the Wayanad MP has not yet made his decision on the issue clear. His mother Sonia Gandhi is currently heading the post.
Gehlot said within the party there is an opinion in favour of making Rahul Gandhi the new president. Considering the sentiments of Congress workers across the country, Rahul Gandhi should accept the role.
“If Rahul Gandhi does not become the party president, it will be a disappointment for the Congressmen in the country. Many people will sit at home and we will suffer. He (Rahul Gandhi) should accept this post by himself, understanding the sentiments of the common Congress people in the country,"Gehlot was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
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"The unanimous opinion is in support of his becoming the president. So, I think he should accept it. It is not about Gandhi or non-Gandhi family. It is the work of the organisation and no one is becoming a prime minister," he added.
He also hit out at those within and outside the party who have questioned the Gandhi family’s role in the current scheme of things within the Congress.
"In the last 32 years, no person from the Gandhi family became the prime minister or the union minister or the chief minister. Then why Modi ji is afraid of this family? Why does Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal have to say that nothing happened in the country in the last 75 years? Why is everyone attacking Congress?"
He said the grand old party kept the country’s democracy alive for the last 75 years because of which Modi is now the PM and Kejriwal a chief minister.
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"In 75 years, Congress kept democracy alive in the country. This is a gift of Congress to the country," he said.
Gehlot also exuded confidence that the party would once again win the Rajasthan assembly election to be held next year.
"We will win the next assembly elections, and then the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. This time it is not an easy game for Modi. The way Nitish Kumar has given a blow to the BJP in Bihar and the Congress has cornered the central government through protests led by Rahul Gandhi on the issue of inflation and unemployment, the Modi government has shaken," Gehlot said.
According to reports, requests by Congress leaders to Rahul Gandhi to become the party chief have received no response. He quit as Congress president after the party's defeat in the 2019 general election.
(With agency inputs)
