Kamal Nath says Rahul to be Cong prez, when unclear

Kamal Nath, a Congress member of the Lok Sabha. has said the return of Vice-President Rahul Gandhi had reinvigorated the party and it was certain that he would be the president though it was unclear when.

In an interview to Karan Thapar on Headlines Today, the former Union minister said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — the largest member of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) — had worked itself into a corner over the land Bill.

Nath said he was confident the momentum infused by Rahul through his new assertive self would be kept up. Congress leaders and workers had always known him to be a good speaker, with an arsenal of wit and rhetoric, but his oratory skills were now for all to see at rallies and in Parliament, he said.

As for opposition within the party to Rahul taking the reins, Nath called it “limited and inconsequential”.

He refuted Sandeep Dikshit’s claim that 98 per cent of the party wanted its president and Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi to continue. Nath said it was for Sonia and Rahul to decide when the son would take over.

Nath also dismissed reports of Congress planning to initiate disciplinary action against senior leaders Captain Amarinder Singh and Sandeep Dikshit for opposing Rahul.

He also dismissed claims of Rahul's parliamentary career being uneven. In the 10 speeches (including interventions) that Rahul has delivered in his 11-year career, the average attendance was 52 per cent. “Perfectly acceptable,” said Nath.

The senior Congress leader also took on the government, claiming Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no option but to drop the land acquisition amendments.

After farmer Gajendra Singh’s suicide in Delhi during a political rally, it was unlikely that the government would be able to garner the support of the Samajwadi Party or the Bahujan Samaj Party for the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, where it lacks numbers, to get it passed, Nath said.

He also said Congress had been able to prove successfully that Modi and the BJP were “anti-farmer, anti-poor”. It was unlikely that Modi would be able to reassert his “magic”.

Nath also called BJP’s massive membership drive “fraudulent”.

He refuted claims that Rahul's trek to the Kedarnath temple was a bid to correct the perception of Congress’s pro-minority bias. The party had reportedly ruffled even secular-minded Hindus during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls due to this perception.