Rahul Gandhi begins Congress presidency with attack on BJP

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 16

Rahul Gandhi on Saturday assumed the presidency of 132-year-old Congress with an attack on the ruling BJP and promised to transform the Congress from a grand old to a grand-old-and-young party..

Steering clear of internal Congress challenges, Gandhi chose to focus his acceptance speech on his political rivals accusing the BJP of playing a politics of "hatred and fear".

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“The BJP has lit the fire of hate and poison all over. There is only one power that can douse this fire. That power is Congress party and its workers. They spread hatred, we spread love; they divide, we unite, they spread anger and we spread harmony,” Gandhi said after his mother and predecessor Sonia Gandhi along with the members of Congress-election committee handed him the certificate of election as the next party president.

Read: Rahul will lead the party with courage, dedication: Sonia

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Emotion and chaos ran high at the venue as thousands of workers thronged AICC gates pushing and shoving top leaders like Manish Tewari, Abhishek Singhvi, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda and Veerappa Moily. Many leaders returned after failing to make it to a teeming venue.

Inside, Sonia Gandhi lauded her son’s forbearance saying he had seen violence since childhood.

“I have full faith in Rahul’s forbearance. He is not afraid despite facing personal attacks and he has faced violence since he was a child....he’s my son, it’s not right on my part to praise him much,” said Sonia Gandhi saying the Congress was ready for any sacrifice to further the cause of freedom and morality.

Former prime minister Manmohan Singh said Gandhi would usher a politics of hope ending the era of politics of hatred.
Rahul Gandhi for his part rued “the BJP attacks on the Congress since two years” slamming saffron forces for their “politics of suppression “.

His speech concentrated more on rivals and suffices to describe the Congress men as a family.
Gandhi like most times read from a prepared text but appeared much more in control and command as his mother slipped into the shadows.

#WATCH live from AICC: Rahul Gandhi takes charge as the President of Congress party in Delhi. https://t.co/3N6Ot5Prpt

— ANI (@ANI) December 16, 2017

Scores of Rahul Gandhi supporters broke into loud celebrations, shook their legs to upbeat music, raised  slogans, burst crackers and distributed sweets outside the Congress office as he took over as the new president.

Outside the 24, Akbar Road, Congress Headquarters, a group of colourfully dressed artists played drums and danced to Punjabi bhangra tunes with party supporters, including men and women, shaking a leg or two and waving Rahul Gandhi's pictures and Congress flags.

There were other groups of artists from Hyderabad and Rajasthan performing folk dances of their regions.

Current and former Chief Ministers, MPs, senior Congress leaders, and all PCC chiefs and delegates were present at the handing over ceremony.

The 47-year-old Gandhi scion's formal takeover comes two days before the counting of votes for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections, the outcome of which could be a trendsetter for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Rahul Gandhi had been the party vice-president for over four years since 2013.

His main challenge remains the revamping of party organisation, apart from electoral battles in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.