The Congress needs a “major surgery” in the wake of the Lok Sabha poll debacle, senior party leader M. Veerappa Moily has said.
Emphasising that party president Rahul Gandhi alone can lead the party, Mr. Moily said Mr. Gandhi must carry out a complete overhaul of the party by holding elections at every level and quell internal bickering with an “iron hand”. The AICC in charges and the chiefs of the States where the party did badly should be held accountable and not Mr. Gandhi.
Mr. Moily asserted that Mr. Gandhi continues to be the AICC president and that he has not stepped down. “He [Gandhi] said that owning moral responsibility he will step down. [The Congress] Working Committee (CWC) has been unanimous to say that he has to continue. That holds good even today,” he said.
It was not fair that Mr. Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party in 2017, quits as president after being at the helm only for about one and half years. He must be given a substantial time to prove himself. With elections in States such as Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Haryana coming up, Mr. Gandhi had to immediately step in.
“This is not the time to deliberate on who should be the next president. He has to put proper people in-charge of States in the AICC, start the process right now, without any loss of time. Proper candidates for elections will have to be selected... One has to take the reins in his hands and that should be done only by Mr. Gandhi now,” Mr. Moily, a former Union Minister said.
Published - June 16, 2019 09:38 pm IST
