‘High time’ Cong appoints full-time prez, says Dikshit

Asserts there is ‘sense of drift’ with an interim president at the helm

New Delhi, July 26: It is “high time” that the Congress appoints a fulltime president by “selection or election,” party leader Sandeep Dikshit said on Sunday, asserting that the Congress Working Committee comprising senior leaders should have settled the leadership issue earlier, dealing with it on priority.

There is a “sense of drift” and a feeling that “we need to get on with the job” in the party with an interim president at the helm, Dikshit said.

The Congress leader said that for him, there was no “particular fixation” with any person, and Rahul Gandhi or anyone else could be appointed by “selection or election”, but the important thing is that the party needs a full-time president.

Dikshit’s remarks assume significance as Sonia Gandhi nears completion of one-year as interim Congress president in early August and the party is abuzz with hectic parleys on the way forward. He also hit out at Jyotiraditya Scindia for switching to the BJP and Sachin Pilot for his rebellion in Rajasthan, asserting that the fight was not between the young and the old in the party, but between the “usurpers” and those persevering through hardwork.

“Much as I would say that Mrs (Sonia) Gandhi is doing a very able and commendable job (as president), one of the reasons that she left earlier was that she felt that it is time for her to take to the background and for other people to take over. In her case, it was Mr (Rahul) Gandhi,” Dikshit said.

“Here’s an interim arrangement. Interim is a very iffy word because you know if you are interim you won’t take long term decisions for the Congress. So, it is high time we get a full time president, whoever it is,” the 55-year-old former MP said.

Whether it is through “selection or election” there is no issue, he said. “We should have a fulltime president, whether it is Mr. A or Mr. B or Mr. Gandhi that is not an issue at all. Party ideology and collective leadership make a party,” he said.

He said initially it was thought that the CWC, the party’s highest decision making body, will come together and select a president or maybe among themselves elect one, but that has not happened. It is not a bad idea to leave it open to the AICC, where one can also have an election to the working committee, he said. “It (appointment of full-time president) should have happened earlier. I constantly maintain that here is the place where I point towards the inability of our senior leaders (CWC members) to have risen to the challenge, got together and got this thing done,” Dikshit said.