Rahul Gandhi stepping aside from leadership is not solution: Senior leader over loss

Hyderabad: Responding over rumours of Congress Party chief Rahul’s resignation following his loss in LS election, senior party leader and four-time MLA Marri Shahshidhar Reddy said sleeping aside from the leadership role is not the solution.

The Gandhi family has evolved in the past decades and had been the binding force for the party keeping it intact all these years he said.

“So, that (Gandhi family members resigning from posts) is not something which provides a solution,” Mr Reddy, also a former vice-chairman of National Disaster Management Authority told PTI.

“The Gandhi family is not just individuals. The family has been the binding factor, it evolved like this over the decades, and in between we had breaks (without Gandhi family members at the helm), the results have not been good,” he said.

“Now also (in Lok Sabha elections), expectations have been belied, things this time did not work out but it cannot said that somebody else would have done a better job”, he added.

“You need a leader to reach out to the people. And that kind of an appeal to reach to people is something which, all other leaders…limited kind of appeal or reach,” Reddy claims.

Congress debacle in the elections does not prove Rahul’s leadership was not good enough, in fact, Congress’s performance under Rahul leadership in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh last year was encouraging he said.

“He (Rahul Gandhi) can build the party, understand its drawbacks, go state-by-state. He will be able to do it, he should it,” Reddy answered on how the party can be strengthened.