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Congress’ Salman Khurshid is known for his organisational skills
Salman Khurshid comes from a political family and his father Khurshid Alam Khan was an external affairs minister and his maternal grandfather Dr Zakir Hussain was the third president of India.
Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid, his aides who have worked closely with him say, can get work done.
They recollect his work as a Union minister and president of the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit that he headed twice - from 1998 to 2000 and 2004 to 2007.
“Khurshid will always know whom to trust for a particular responsibility. Whenever Khurshid faced any challenge, he had a list of leaders who could accomplish the tasks ahead,” Congress leader Abid Hussain, who worked closely with Khurshid as Congress’ Uttar Pradesh unit vice-president, says.
“His organisational skills as UP Congress president helped the party in improving its tally in Parliament,” Hussain says.
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Khurshid was first inducted as the deputy minister of commerce in the Narasimha Rao government in 1991. He worked as a cabinet minister in UPA-II government led by then prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2009. He also held important portfolios that include foreign affairs, minority affairs, water resources, corporate affairs and law and justice.
“It was during Khurshid’s term as UPCC chief that poll was conducted to elect the Congress president. Sonia Gandhi won the poll,” says Hussain.
Salman Khurshid feels party president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will help the Congress in the Lok Sabha election 2019.
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“We have negatives as well as positives in the Lok Sabha elections. The negative part is the opposition’s inability to fight the election together. If all of us had contested the poll together it would have had a multiplying factor against BJP,” Khurshid says.
“Unfortunately, the SP and BSP chose not to join hands with us and there will be a division of votes. In similar circumstances in 2009, when all these parties fought election independently, we won 22 Lok Sabha seats,” he points.
He says a change this time is the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samal Party’s Mayawati have joined hands.
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“The Congress believes in a casteless society and we will deal with the present political scenario. A lot of vigour is being pumped into the party by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and this is a big positive,” he says.
Khurshid comes from a political family and his father Khurshid Alam Khan was an external affairs minister and his maternal grandfather Dr Zakir Hussain was the third president of India.
The 66-year-old grew up Delhi and studied in St Stephens College and the Oxford University, where he acquired a law degree. He also taught law at Trinity College in the same university.
A senior lawyer and an author, Salman Khurshid will contest again from the Farrukhabad parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He had lost from the Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 general election.
