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New Congress president Kharge will decide my role in the party: Rahul Gandhi
Gandhi claimed that the Congress is the only democratic party in the country, because of it has held elections for the party president post
Senior Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said newly-elected party president Mallikarjun Kharge will decide his (Gandhi) role in the party in the coming days.
Congratulating Kharge on his election as the Congress president, Gandhi said, “It is for the new president to decide which party the Congress would ally with in the next elections.”
Speaking to reporters in Adoni town of Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district during his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, Gandhi claimed that the Congress is the only democratic party in the country, because of it has held elections for the party president post.
“It reflects the democratic spirit in the party. Even if there is any disgruntlement among any leaders, they speak up openly. In no other party can one find such democracy as seen in the Congress. There is a total dictatorship in all other parties and no leader has the guts to speak out,” he said.
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Gandhi, himself a former Congress president, admitted that the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh (into AP and Telangana) caused deep wounds to the people of the state. However, the people should forget the past and move on, focusing on the future of the state, he urged.
With regard to the Jagan Mohan Reddy government’s decision in AP to create three capitals for the state, Gandhi said his party will not support the move. “We are committed to have Amaravati as the only capital of the state. There is no need for three capitals for any state. It should have only one capital,” he said.
Further, the Congress MP said his party will stand by the farmers of Amaravati who had given away their lands for the capital. “We shall extend our complete support to the farmers who are on padayatra,” he said.
He also promised that if the Congress-led UPA coalition is voted to power at the Centre next general elections, it will certainly fulfil the long-pending demand of Andhra Pradesh for a special category status, and all the pending promises made in the AP Reorganisation Act, including the completion of the Polavaram irrigation project on river Godavari.
