- Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Amid the buzz over who would become the next president of India’s major opposition Indian National Congress, the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday (23) took potshots at the former saying its presidential poll is nothing but an eyewash as the next party chief would be remotely controlled by the Gandhis, who have dominated the party’s affairs for decades.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla on Friday lashed out at Ashok Gehlot, chief minister of the northern-western state of Rajasthan and a senior leader who is in race for the president’s post saying the latter’s remark had let the cat out of the bag about the grand-old party’s so-called elections that were nothing but an eyewash.
When asked about the future chief minister of Rajasthan, Gehlot told mediapersons, “Party president Sonia Gandhi will decide further proceedings (for Rajasthan) along with general secretary in-charge Ajay Maken when I become the party president.”
Responding to Gehlot’s statement, Poonawalla said, “What capacity will she have? She will be the ex-president! Should not the Congress MLAs (members of legislative assembly) decide their CM? If Gandhis will have the remote control then why is this ‘Farzi chunav (fake election)?”
Poonawalla further said that senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram, too, had said that whoever be the next president, Rahul Gandhi will have the pre-eminent position in the party.
“This is the proof that the next president of Congress will be a proxy of the Gandhis and will be remotely controlled by Gandhis like Manmohan Singh was remotely controlled by Sonia Gandhi,” said the BJP spokesperson.
Poonawalla also said that this was a coronation, not an election, and many Congress leaders who demanded electoral rolls to be made public had exposed this farce of an exercise.
The Congress’ presidential election will be held on October 17 and the election results will be declared on October 19.
Earlier on Friday, Rajasthan CM Gehlot confirmed his candidature for the upcoming Congress president election and said that Rahul Gandhi has made it clear that “no member of the Gandhi family” would become the next party chief.
Speaking to the media, Gehlot, who is in Kerala to take part in the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ (Unite India March), said, “I said earlier that I will request him (Rahul Gandhi) to accept this post when all the Congress Committees are passing resolutions in this regard. He made it clear that no one from the Gandhi family will become the next chief. He said he has decided this due to some reasons, a non-Gandhi family member will become the party chief”.
Senior parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor has also given an indication of contesting polls and had met Sonia Gandhi on Monday (19).
Another senior leader Digvijay Singh on Friday said that he was not in the race for the party chief.
[With ANI inputs]
