The Congress is not attaching much importance to the recent statements by senior party leaders R.K. Dhawan, Vasant Sathe and C.K. Jaffer Sharief on Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra, viewing this as nothing but a “calling attention” or “private member business”.
All the three leaders have been Gandhi family loyalists but the statements show that they want to play a role of “conscience keeper”.
“It is like a calling attention,” a senior party leader, who declined to be identified, said thereby implying that the leaders who have been making a pitch for Priyanka have been mainly doing so to draw attention towards themselves as they have long ceased to be politically important.
“Members of the Gandhi family do not take decisions on anybody’s demand,” the Congress insiders said recalling that Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Mr Rahul Gandhi took the decision of joining politics on their own.
Congress spokespersons have been insisting that it was left to Ms Vadra to decide her future course of action.
But the timing of Priyanka lau, party badhav (bring Priyanka to grow the party) demand is significant as it has made ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections and against the backdrop of the Congress’ victory in Assam, Kerala and West Bengal Assembly elections.
Mr Dhawan has advised Mr Gandhi to be cautious in selecting his team. A leader should never make his close relatives or friends as his equal because they know your plus and minus points. They become ambitious and use the leaders negative points for their ends, he felt.
Mr Sathe, on the other hand, feels it is time Ms Vadra gets into active politics to help the party get back to power on its own in the 2014 general election by discarding the “clutches”.