"Ready To Lead Congress Again?" Rahul Gandhi Was Asked. His Response

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said he favours internal elections within the party and it will be the workers who will decide who should lead the party and asserted that he will do whatever the party asks him to.

In an exclusive interview with PTI, he said the organisational elections within the party would be held in time, but what is required now is saving lives and controlling the pandemic.

There have been demands by the ''Group of 23'' leaders for early organisational elections and a full-time Congress president.

The group led by former Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, had written to interim president Sonia Gandhi in August last year raising their demands.

"I have always favoured internal organisational elections within the Congress and these will be conducted in time," he told PTI.

"It is for the party workers to decide as to who should lead the party. I will do whatever the party wants me to do," he said when asked whether he was ready to lead the party again.

Mr Gandhi had quit as Congress president in May last year taking responsibility for the party's humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has said that the party would see a new Congress president by June 2021, after she chaired a meeting of the Congress Working Committee earlier this year.

"But right now the focus is on controlling the pandemic, saving lives, and alleviating India's widespread suffering and pain. There will be time for everything else in due course," Mr Gandhi also said.

He has blamed the central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the current crisis in the country due to the second wave of coronavirus which has seen India clocking a record over 4 lakh cases a day.  

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)