While the leadership crisis in Congress continues and its leaders yet to arrive at a consensus on Rahul Gandhi’s replacement, some of its leaders feel that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should take charge.
According to Indian Express, a murmur is now gaining ground in the party for AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to take charge. Congress leaders have, so far, not pushed her name openly because Rahul Gandhi, while conveying his decision to step down at the CWC meeting on May 25, had said that the party should find someone other than a member of the Gandhi family for the post.
Former Union minister Sriprakash Jaiswal told The Indian Express, “But many people are saying now. I, too, believe Priyankaji should become the Congress president. She belongs to the Gandhi family. She is a leader and has the quality to lead the party. She is dynamic.”
Three-time former Lok Sabha MP Bhakta Charan Das told the leading daily, “millions of leaders of the Congress party, from grassroots to the top, will demand Priyanka ji in the absence of Rahul Gandhi. Along with her, a credible team should be there, and we should deliver. I strongly feel that if Rahul Gandhi does not take back his resignation, Priyanka ji should become (party chief) and the party should propose her name.”
Rahul Gandhi's decision to quit as Congress president may have been unanimously rejected by senior party leaders, but he has found support in his sister Priyanka. She, however, wants him to give the party leadership some time to come up with an alternative course of action. In a meeting of the Congress Working Committee held on May 25, the 48-year-old politician said he would like to step down from the party's top post in view of its dismal performance in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections. "We have to continue our fight. I am and will remain a disciplined soldier of the Congress and continue to fight fearlessly. But I do not want to remain the party president," Rahul Gandhi was quoted as saying.
During the four-hour-long meeting, the Congress leaders reportedly asked Rahul Gandhi who else would be worthy of taking up the party president's mantle. When Priyanka Gandhi's name came up, he said: "Don't drag my sister into it. It's not necessary that the president should be from the Gandhi family."
