New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi on Friday reignited the debate on the leadership vaccum in the Congress by telling some of his party MPs that there was a group of people who were “not on the same page as him” as far as fighting the BJP was concerned, and he would not return as the Congress president until these differences were resolved.
These remarks by Mr Gandhi, who resigned as Congress president in the wake of the severe drubbing the party got in last year’s Lok Sabha polls, can be seen as a bid to corner his critics in the party, which comprises a section of the senior leadership, before what many say is his imminent return as party chief. On Friday, right after the Lok Sabha was adjourned in the morning, after vociferous protests by the Congress over the suspension of seven of its MPs on Thursday, Mr Gandhi was seen talking to some MPs like Manish Tewari, Hibi Eden and Shashi Tharoor. He is learnt to have told them the Congress must be more aggressive in fighting against the BJP, and there wassome confusion in the party over this matter.
Sources said when the MPs asked about his comeback as party chief, he had said: “If this is the way the party is run, I am not willing to take up the leadership. The way certain leaders function is not right. It will be difficult for me to work with them as our approach is different. I am very clear about how to fight against the BJP.”
He is learnt to have added the fight has to be ideological, and no adjustments should be made. “We need to have a bigger struggle. These isolated, small protests would not work,” he had said.
Till now, Mr Gandhi’s official reaction had been that the Congress needs to find a “non-Gandhi” president.
Amid speculation that a plenary may be held in Udaipur to select a new president and effect certain basic changes in the organisation, some party leaders have come out in the open demanding an end to the uncertainty. Mrs Sonia Gandhi has been officiating as interim party president since Mr Gandhi resigned in May last year.
