‘Congress can return to power under Rahul’
UK SUPPORTERS URGE LEADERSHIP CHANGE AS GANDHI SPRINGS ‘SURPRISE’
THE president of India’s Congress party Sonia Gandhi called on supporters in the UK to work hard to help the party win upcoming state elections, after her son Rahul Gandhi connected members of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK with his mother in a “surprise” phone call during his ongoing London visit.
Gandhi met IOC UK team members last Saturday (21) to discuss party-related matters and listen to their views and concerns.
The IOC UK president, Kamal Dhaliwal, and others urged him to take over the party’s presidency so the Congress could “come into power under his leadership”.
“In a surprise move, Rahul Gandhiji connected IOC team members to Sonia Gandhiji over the phone, during which Mrs Gandhi motivated all the team members to work hard for the party and win the upcoming elections,” IOC UK said in a statement.
The IOC Telangana team members, its spokesperson Sudhakar Goud and general secretary Gampa Venugopal, expressed their gratitude to the party president for the formation of the state in 2014, while Sonia Gandhi called on them to “work hard to win the Telangana state elections”.
While Telangana is scheduled to hold assembly polls next year, the next general election in India will take place in 2024.
During his meeting with overseas workers, Gandhi is said to have reiterated his stance that the party is geared up for an ideological fight in India.
“He said, ‘we are not fighting against any one political organisation but against a harmful ideology and to protect the institutions of the country’,” an IOC UK spokesperson said.
The IOC UK vice-president, Gurminder Randhawa, updated the Congress leader about the women’s wing’s activities in the UK as well as a stock-take of recently held state elections in Punjab as part of what was described as a “positive and interactive session” with the IOC UK team.
During his UK visit, Gandhi addressed the Ideas for India conference last Friday (20). It was attended by other Indian opposition members including the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Sitaram Yechury; Tejashwi Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal; and the Trinamool Congress’s Mahua Moitra.
“Democracy in India is a global public good. We’re the only people who have managed democracy at an unparalleled scale,” he said at the event organised by thinktank Bridge India.
Gandhi met UK MPs on Monday (23) before an interaction with students at Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge, at an event entitled “India at 75”.