Sons of Pranab, Shastri want Priyanka as chief

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 17

Wary of a non-Gandhi Congress president after Rahul Gandhi’s resignation, a section in the party has begun pulling the race of succession back towards the first family.

In public expressions of loyalty for the Gandhis today, Anil Shastri and Abhijit Mukherjee, sons of late PM Lal Bahadur Shastri and former President Pranab Mukherjee, respectively, called for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to lead the party in the absence of her brother.

“Now that Rahul is firm on his resignation, it’s the question of party’s existence. And, if the party has to survive, we have to have a president at the earliest. There can’t be a better person to lead the Congress than Priyanka and let the AICC elect her,” Anil Shastri tweeted.

Earlier today, former MP Abhijit Mukjerhee also took to Twitter. “Priyanka should take up the reins of our party and I am strongly hopeful that it will be a rewind of 1980 once again driving the Congress to a landslide victory like her grandmother and our charismatic leader Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi did,” he said.

Many Congress leaders, however, feel the family may say it’s insulated from the process of selecting a new president but it is actually not. “Rahul is involved in the way forward. The plan will reveal itself soon,” a Congress leader said.

A large section in the Congress also feels the Gandhi family appeared unclear about the name of a potential successor to Rahul and that explained the delay in decision making. Meanwhile, most leaders say they have not been consulted by anyone on the party’s future. “No one has asked me for a potential name for Congress presidency,” a CWC member said.

‘Gandhis not on same page’ 

• Congress leaders say lack of internal trust for anyone to openly recommend a non-Gandhi
• “Who will bell the cat unless the Gandhi family itself leads the effort of finding a new chief. It appears the family itself is not on one page on what to do,” a senior Congress leader said