Rahul Gandhi should lead Congress, I urge him to take charge: Siddaramaiah before CWC meeting

Former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah extended his support to party leader Rahul Gandhi while echoing his long standing demand for Gandhi to take over the post of party president.

"I have been saying for (a) long time that Rahul Gandhi should lead (the) Congress party. I urge him to take charge at the earliest," Siddaramaiah, the leader of the opposition said in Bengaluru on Monday.

"It is not that Sonia ji is incapable of discharging her duties of the president. Sonia ji is not keeping good health. That is why I suggested Rahul ji to take over as early as possible," he added.

On the question of him eyeing for a big role in central politics, Siddaramaiah said that he has no interest in the central politics and he has already conveyed that to interim party president Sonia Gandhi.

"Some people made strategy against me, that is the reason some publications are publishing that I am going to national politics. There is no such talks as of now and I have no interest in going to central politics," the Congress leader said.

Notably, these statements of his came at a time when Congress' supreme body Congress Working Committee (CWC) is slated to hold a meeting on October 16 in New Delhi to discuss the current political situation, forthcoming Assembly polls and organisational elections.

It remains an unanswered question whether prior to that Rahul Gandhi will take over the post of party president or will contest for party president post. But the Youth Congress, National Students' Union of India, Mahila Congress and Social Media's National Executives have passed a resolution to make him party president.

Sonia Gandhi was made interim president by CWC after Rahul Gandhi stepped down as the president of AICC accepting the responsibility of poll debacle in the 2019 general elections.

(ANI)