Expect Rahul Gandhi to be Congress President this year, says Jairam Ramesh

Hyderabad: Rahul Gandhi is expected to become the party president this year and intends to build the outfit similar to the one that existed during Nehru’s time by promoting regional faces, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Tuesday. “..I expect that it would be in 2015. We are expecting that he will take over (as Congress President), and we are expecting that he would take over in 2015,” the former Union Minister told PTI in an interview. Gandhi is committed to creating a new cadre of leadership in states, he said [caption id=“attachment_2254292” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Jairam Ramesh. PTI[/caption] “He (the Congress Vice-President) recognises that we need state-level leadership. We need to create the Congress party that existed during the times of Jawaharlal Nehru, where we had a Kamaraj, Pratap Singh Kairon, Y B Chavan, B C Roy, G B Pant among others,” Ramesh said. “We need regional-level leadership because we are not only fighting national elections, we are also fighting state elections. “He (Rahul) does not believe in the culture of nominations; he believes in people emerging as leaders; he does not believe in para-trooping,” he said. Ramesh dismissed complaints from some quarters that the Congress old guard feels insecure about their future with Rahul taking over from Sonia Gandhi and downplayed the discordant notes on his leadership qualities. “There is no old guard. There is no young guard. There is only one guard. There is only Congress guard”, Ramesh said. “Every organisation must undergo a process of renewal every 20 years…every 25 years and the Congress must project younger faces from a broader spectrum of society…give them positions of prominence, give them positions of authority,” he emphasized. Ramesh wished more youngsters had been part of UPA-1 and UPA-2 Government. He also said the older generation in the party has experience, political wisdom and youngsters have enthusiasm and energy. “I think you need both. Gandhi himself will be 45-year-old this year. So, he is in an ideal position. 45 is like a sandwich. You are neither younger generation nor older. So, I think Gandhi is ideally placed for bringing about convergence of experiences of the older with the energy of younger generation,” he said. Referring to the recent break taken by Rahul, the leader said the Congress Vice-President is now a “transformed figure”. “He is aggressive; he has taken active role in Parliament. He has led Padayatras in different states on farmers’ issues. I think we are seeing a new Mr Rahul Gandhi, Mr Rahul Gandhi who is active, who is proactive and who is reactive. “I am sure he will sustain this and it shows the fact that the period of introspection which he undertook enabled him to fully understand not only what is expected of him but also the challenges that he faced. So, to that extent, I think the break that he took worked wonders for him,” Ramesh added. On Gandhi’s sabbatical lasting nearly two months, the former Union Minister also said, “I have not had a long conversation with him. But please try to understand Rahul Gandhi. He confronted the worst election defeat of the Congress party (in general and state elections) one after the other. So it is natural that he began to re-evaluate on why Congress was losing so badly.” “I think whatever Rahul Gandhi did in those 55-56 days (sabbatical period), he has come back as a different human being. My own view is that he is the old Rahul Gandhi and not the new Rahul Gandhi. In fact, it is real Gandhi coming out,“Ramesh said. “He (Rahul) felt for these issues and he is communicating more and participating more. He has overcome his reluctance to interact with the media. He has learnt to confront situations. So now get used to see the new normal Rahul Gandhi,” he added. “We had a severe defeat in 2014 general elections and then we lost four assembly elections. People had written off the Congress. But today Congress has got ‘sanjeevani’ in the form of land acquisition amendments issue and a reactive Rahul Gandhi,” Ramesh said. The leader claimed that the biggest achievement of the party in the past one year (during it’s role as the main opposition party) has been to “overcome those five (electoral) defeats that we had in quick succession and re-discover our strength and today Modi is on the defensive”. Ramesh patted Congress for being in power in nine states of the country. “But at Centre we are an opposition party and we will continue to play a role of constructive Opposition and not a destructive and obstructionist party like the BJP was (when it was in opposition),” he added.  PTI