DIFFERENT STROKES: HOW GANDHIS LEAD
NEW DELHI: From his mother Sonia, Gandhi said he had learnt a lot, the most important being the value of patience, as he spoke about the similarities and differences between their styles of functioning.
“I have learnt a lot from her. She has taught me patience. I used to be much more impatient and she taught me how to be more patient. That’s something she is very good at. Sometimes I tell her she is too patient. I think that we both tend to listen… That would be the similarity,” he said.
Asked about differences, Gandhi said, “She told me yesterday that she goes on gut feeling and I go on thinking. I don’t know if I agree with that. How I view it is that leadership is an evolution and it is something that is constantly changing.”
Asked if there was any “special person” in his life, Gandhi said, “I have a lot of special people in my life. I have my mother, I have my sister, I have my friends, I have many special people. There is no one special person, yeah.”
The Congress president expressed confidence that his party will win assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and also Telangana, which go to polls in the next few months.
“We are pretty confident…. I do not see the [lack of a] BSP alliance impacting us much in Madhya Pradesh. It would have been good thing to have but we will win the elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said discussions with alliance partners is a two-stage process when asked if he stood by his statement during the Karnataka elections that he was willing to be the prime ministerial candidate if his party and the allies want that. “Stage one is to get together to defeat the BJP and stage two is once the elections are over, we will decide what happens. But we really do not know now what will happen then,” he said.
When pressed further, the Congress chief said, “If they want me yes sure I will [be the prime ministerial candidate].”
Rahul Gandhi had earlier described the issue as “divisive” and insisted that all the opposition parties should come onto one platform to oust the BJP from power in 2019.
Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for blaming the Congress for “everything that originated” in this country in the last 70 years, he said, “You can’t keep blaming us even when you are in power. If you give us that much importance, let us run the place. We will show you how to fix it.”