With the
Congress leadership in limbo after the resignation
of Rahul Gandhi,
party veteran Natwar
Singh on Sunday joined the chorus backing
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for the top post, adding that having a
non-
Gandhi at the helm
will
cause the
party
to split.
Praising
Priyanka for her visit
to Sonbhadra
to meet victims
of a firing incident, the former external affairs minister told ANI that she is
capable
of handling the
party. "You must have witnessed what she did in a village in Uttar Pradesh. It was amazing. She stayed there and achieved what she wanted
to," he said.
Singh suggested that Rahul's decision
of a having someone from outside the Gandhi family as the
party chief
will have
to be reversed.
On being asked if
Priyanka would be elected as the
party president, the Congressman said, "It
will depend on
Priyanka because her brother (Rahul Gandhi) had said that nobody from the Gandhi family
will become the
Congress President. Now, the family
will have
to reverse the decision and only they can do it."
Earlier,
Anil Shastri, son
of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, had said that
Priyanka Gandhi should be made the
Congress president as no one other than her is "100 per cent acceptable".
Shastri, speaking
to ANI, had also warned that if somebody else is made the supremo and a section
of the outfit does not accept them, chances are that the
party
will disintegrate.
Natwar
Singh echoed similar sentiments and said that if anyone is elected from outside the Gandhi family, the
Congress
will split within 24 hours.
"It is unfortunate that the country's 134-years-old
party does not have a
party president. I do not think apart from the Gandhi family, anyone should be elected as the president,"
Singh added.
Around 50 days after Rahul stepped down as
Congress president, taking moral responsibility for the humiliating defeat in the
Lok Sabha elections, the grand old
party is yet
to finalize its new chief.
Gandhi, now a lawmaker from Wayanad in Kerala, became the
Congress president in 2017. He had, earlier this month, written a lengthy four-page letter making his resignation from the post public. Taking responsibility for the drubbing in Lok Sabha polls, Rahul had said it would not be right for him
to suggest a successor.
At present
Congress in Goa has completely lost foot, after 10
of its MLAs switched side with the BJP. This has reduced its strength
to five in the Assembly.
Similarly, in Karnataka, the situation is equally embarrassing for the
party, as its coalition government with JD(S) is facing a tough time. The government had slumped into a crisis following the resignation
of 16 dissident MLAs and now its survival seems
to be tough.
The
Congress won 52 seats in the recent general elections, which is just eight more than its 2014 Lok Sabha tally
of 44.