Digvijaya questions Rahul's ability to rule

Amid continued questioning of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's ability to handle elections by several party leaders, the party's general secretary Digvijaya Singh said the 44-year-old Gandhi scion was not suited to rule.

In an interview Friday to a Goa television news channel, which was telecast Saturday, Digvijaya Singh, who is party in-charge of Goa and often touted as Gandhi's political guru, said Gandhi should have taken up the responsibility of leading the Congress in the Lok Sabha and taking on the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

"He is by temperament not a ruling person. He is by temperament someone who wants to fight injustice," he said.

Digvijaya Singh's statement comes at a time when Gandhi has been under attack from several state units for failing to add any punch to the Congress's election campaign, leading to its worst poll debacle.

The Congress won only 44 seats in the general election, 10 less than the number required to stake its claim to the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha.

The party has suspended two state leaders from Rajasthan and Kerala who recently lambasted Gandhi publicly.

Former Rajasthan legislator Bhanwar Lal Sharma had said Gandhi was the "MD of Congress circus", while former Kerala minister T.H. Mustafa had demanded Gandhi's ouster for having landed the Congress in a mess.

Digvijaya Singh was in Goa on a two-day visit to take stock of party affairs and meet state Congress members.

He said he had suggested to Gandhi that he take up the role of the main opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, a responsibility later given to Karnataka leader Mallikarjun Kharge.

"In a democracy, opposition space is necessary. Since the Congress is the largest opposition group, our Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi should have taken up the responsibility," he said.

Gandhi, meanwhile, has been holidaying abroad for the last 10 days.