Farmers Movement Archive

Siddaramaiah urges Rahul Gandhi to take over as Cong chief

Adding to the growing calls seeking Rahul Gandhi’s return as Congress president ahead of crucial elections in several states, senior Congress party leader Siddaramaiah on Monday echoed similar views saying that the Gandhi scion should lead the party.“I have been saying from (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 and former chief minister 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.The statements come at a time when several Congress leaders have asked that Rahul Gandhi take charge of the party. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting is scheduled to be held on October 16 to deliberate on multiple issues that the party has to do as well as discussing strategies to face the upcoming elections, especially in states like Uttar Pradesh.Rahul Gandhi resigned in 2019 after he took responsibility for the routing of the Congress at the hands of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Sonia Gandhi was made the interim president of the party that has continued to rely on the “Gandhi’s” for leadership and keep the party from breaking up into factions.The Congress is trying to mobilise support against the BJP over issues like price rise of petrol, diesel, cooking gas and other essential commodities as a result, the contentious farm laws and muzzling of free speech among several other issues to gain back some lost ground across the country.After the crisis in Rajasthan and then Punjab, the Congress is now trying to douse the fire in Karnataka by trying to lure Siddaramaiah to head to Delhi and be part of national politics.Siddaramaiah has refused to leave Karnataka and has aired his disapproval of any suggestions to move to Delhi.The Congress is also fighting the October 30 bypolls on the platform of price rise. “Prices of petrol, diesel and LPG are constantly increasing. Additional ₹3,000 crore is collected as tax between April and September compared to last year. (MK) Stalin’s government has reduced the tax by ₹3. Our state govt should reduce by at least ₹10 – only then prices of essential commodities can be controlled. Central govt should reduce excise duty and about ₹23 lakh cr is collected as excise duty in last 7 years. ₹1.2 lakh Cr is collected from Karnataka alone. Let BJP reduce the tax and provide relief to poor people,” Siddaramaiah said.He added that the Modi government has increased the excise duty of diesel from ₹3.45 to ₹31.84 and excise duty of petrol from ₹9.21 to ₹32.98. “Let him reduce excise duty by 50%. This is what I call criminal loot,” Siddaramaiah said.

Hindustan Times

12-10-2021

India