Rahul Gandhi pushes for 50% women CMs in Congress-ruled states in 10 years

Kochi, December 1

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that the party should actively promote women within its organisational structure and set a target to have 50 per cent of women as Chief Ministers within the next 10 years.

Inaugurating ‘Utsaah,’ a Kerala Mahila Congress convention here, the Wayanad MP said there were numerous women leaders in his party who possessed the qualities necessary to become CM.

“Earlier, I was discussing what would be a good target for us to try and achieve, and I thought a good target for the Congress would be that in 10 years from today, 50 per cent of our CM are women. Today, we don’t have a single woman CM. But I know there are many women in the Congress who have the qualities to be very good Chief Ministers,” he said. The Congress leader also attacked the RSS and said it was “purely a male organisation”.

“I think women are superior to men in many ways. They have more patience than men. They are more sensitive and compassionate than men. We fundamentally believe that women should be part of the power structure,” Rahul said, alleging including women was not part of the ideology of the RSS. — PTI

Mod denies Cong claim on Rahul aircraft

The Congress on Friday alleged that the Ministry of Defence denied landing permission for an aircraft carrying Rahul Gandhi at the naval airport in Kochi. A spokesperson said the Union Defence Ministry had neither accorded nor denied landing permission for the aircraft. He said the request for “an unscheduled chartered flight along with the flight plan” was received at the INS Garuda air station at Kochi at 09.40 am on Friday and at the Navy HQ at 10.15 am for takeoff from the Kannur airport at 10.45 am. “Due to the delayed request and paucity of time prior to the departure of the flight, the clearance for the same could not be processed,” he said.