After the Congress Party faced existential crisis following the Lok Sabha debacle, Rahul Gandhi had expressed his adamancy on resigning from his post of the party President.
As the Congress loyalists struggle to prevent the party from fragmenting, BJP’s Himanta Biswa Sarma today jeered at the crisis over Rahul Gandhi’s continuation as the party chief. Talking to the media about the post-polls resignation drama Biswa said, “having Mr Gandhi at the helm would be good for the BJP, but it would not be good for democracy, which needs a vibrant opposition in order to survive”.
The resignation drama outlined by Congress President Rahul Gandhi is to save himself from the embarrassment of losing miserably in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Congress suffered major humiliation after it bagged a flimsy tally of 52 seats out of a total of 542 seats in the Lok Sabha.
Reports state that Rahul Gandhi, despite being pestered by senior party leaders to change his decision, is still adamant on resigning from the party president post. Moreover, throwing the party into a further quandary, he has asked that his mother Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra not be considered as his replacement.
Meanwhile, Himanta Biswa added, “If Rahul Gandhi continues, there is no hope for opposition. From the BJP perspective, we will be happy if Rahul Gandhi continues for the next 50 years.”
“But for all democracy, you need a vibrant opposition and as long as Rahul Gandhi is the face of the Congress and opposition, that is not going to happen. If there is no Rahul Gandhi, then there is a possibility that in the days to come, we might see an emerging vibrant opposition,” added the NEDA chief.
Moreover, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has been instrumental in helping BJP establish its control over all seven states in the Northeast had earlier too, after BJP emerged victorious in the Lok Sabha elections, criticised Rahul Gandhi and attributed Congress’ defeat to him.
On the day of the poll results, Sarma had said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi is not cut out for politics and the party should give him a “decent retirement”.
Opinionating that any elected Congress president minus a dynastic background will be good enough to lead the party better than Rahul Gandhi, the Assam finance minister had said, “I must have met him (Rahul) around 20 times in my life…I feel pity for him. Sonia Gandhi (UPA chairperson and former Congress chief) has thrust him on the Congress. He is a person who has come from a privileged background, he doesn’t respect his colleagues,” Sarma said.
“He (Rahul) should be given a decent retirement because if he does not quit politics, then in India the next 25 years will be dominated by the ruling party (BJP) and there won’t be any opposition, and there would only be BJP and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi,” added the BJP leader.
Meanwhile, there are many Congress loyalists who are trying their utmost best to stop Rahul from quitting as the party President. Reports have it that to further discuss the issue related to Rahul’s resignation another meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has been called, later in the week.
However, it would be interesting to see as to how long can Rahul shield behind this farce and use the deadweight of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to safeguard his position.
