All for Rahul’s elevation, claims Ambika Soni

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 25

Senior Congress leader Ambika Soni today said everyone in the party wanted vice-president Rahul Gandhi to be elevated as the president but no one knew when it was coming.

Speaking to The Tribune, Ambika Soni, Congress general secretary incharge of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand, said, “All of us want Rahul Gandhi to be elevated and to take control of the party organisation. But if you ask me when this would happen, I will say I don’t know, no one knows. That’s the decision only Congress president Sonia Gandhi can take”.

Soni, however, indicated that Rahul’s long-discussed elevation could not happen until Sonia recovered fully from her illness and her dislocated shoulder. Sonia has been out of action for nearly two months and Rahul has been handling party organisation matters in her absence.

In the election-bound Uttar Pradesh, former state chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, a known Sonia loyalist, switched over to the BJP.  Rita, like other leaders who have quit the Congress, blamed Rahul’s working style for her anguish. 

To stem the damage, the Congress yesterday even got Sonia’s daughter Priyanka formally into UP election scene as she attended an official meeting with AICC general secretary UP Ghulam Nabi Azad.

A senior Congress leader felt Rahul’s elevation could be delayed until after UP and Punjab elections, as has been the case in the past, stressing Sonia knows her presence was critical at this juncture.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi has called a meeting of Uttar Pradesh Congress MLAs on Wednesday to take stock of the political situation in the state and discuss the implications of ruling Samajwadi Party’s family feud.