'Ailing Sonia should appoint Rahul Congress chief'

An ailing Congress President Sonia Gandhi should quickly appoint her son Rahul Gandhi as party chief since the delay is only helping Prime Minister Narendra Modi achieve his ambition of a Congress-free India, a Congress leader said on Wednesday.

"If Sonia Gandhi is sick, she should not make (the) Congress sick and thus help Modi to ensure a Congress-mukt Bharat," former Goa Congress President John Fernandes said.

"If she wants to give leadership mantle to Rahul Gandhi, she should do it quickly because she is sick," Fernandes added.

He also faulted the Congress high command for not holding an All India Congress Committee session for three years, after the defeat in the 2014 General Elections which, he said, was only harming the party.

"The Congress should not be sick. The Congress can bounce back if there are workers like me and we work together. The Congress will come back because the people want the Congress. And the Goa election is an indicator," the two-term Rajya Sabha MP said.

Fernandes was appointed state party chief in 2013 after the Congress rout in the 2012 assembly elections. He was subsequently replaced by Luizinho Faleiro in 2014.

Reacting to Fernandes' statement, Goa Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar said the comments had been taken seriously by the party and would be "reviewed" at an upcoming state executive committee meeting.

"Fernandes's opinion about whether the honourable Congress President should continue in the post or not is not binding on the party and her," Kawthankar quipped.

--IANS

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