It’s official, call on Rahul’s ‘larger role’ in Cong soon

It’s official, call on Rahul’s ‘larger role’ in Cong soon

The Congress on Tuesday made it official that party general secretary Rahul Gandhi will be given a “larger role” thereby giving credence to media reports that the scion of the Gandhi-Nehru family is likely to be anointed as the working president of the party.

Congress General Secretary incharge of media Janardan Dwivedi, who is generally very cautious, made an official statement about it. However, he refused to give any time frame about when Rahul will formally take over and said that the decision rests with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

"There is no suspense about it. He has a role in politics and Congress, which is increasing constantly. In natural course, his role will go on increasing. This is what Congressmen want and this is what in their opinion is natural. There is no doubt about it that Congressmen want his role to increase," Dwivedi said.

Asked about media reports that Rahul will take over as the Working President on November 19-birth anniversary of his grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Dwivedi said that one cannot speculate on the time. "The Congress President is there to lead the party. She will decide when and what to do."

However, about increasing demand from the Congress workers that Rahul's sister Priyanka Vadra should also play a greater role, especially, since she has a "charismatic personality", Dwivedi said that decision about who would play what role is taken by the Gandhi family. "At present, Rahul Gandhi is in politics" he pointed out.

Party sources strongly rejected the suggestions that Rahul taking greater role would mean diminishing powers of Sonia. They also refuted media reports that Sonia, who returned from abroad a couple of months back after a surgery for an undisclosed ailment, is once again likely to head to foreign shores.

Though the Congress constitution does not have the provision for the post of Working President, it gives power to the party President to make any appointment as per the needs of the party. Only once in the past, the Congress had a Working President Kamlapati Tripathi during Indira Gandhi regime. The party had twice appointed Vice Presidents also - Arjun Singh and Jitendra Prasad.