PM rolls out red carpet for Rahul

Aug 12, 2012 |

New Delhi

Tags:

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said Rahul Gandhi’s entry into the Cabinet would be a welcome development. “I have always said I would welcome Rahul’s entry into government,” Dr Singh told reporters here.

The remarks of the Prime Minister, made at Rashtrapati Bhavan where he had gone to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Hamid Ansari as vice president of India, come at a time when the Congress has indicated that Mr Gandhi could play a role bigger both in the party and in the government. Mr Gandhi is currently an AICC general secretary in charge of NSUI and Youth Congress affairs.

Speculation is rife that Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will reconstitute her team in the organisation any time and the PM could reshuffle his Cabinet after the Monsoon Session of Parliament.

Mrs Sonia Gandhi has been keen on Mr Gandhi joining the government while a section of the AICC wants him to play a proactive role in the organisation before the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress has decided to fight the next general election under the leadership of Mr Gandhi. “We should project Rahul as our PM candidate,” an AICC official said.

Last month, Mr Gandhi had said he would play a more proactive role in the Congress and in the government, the timing of which would be decided by his two bosses — Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and the Prime Minister.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/180002" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-88dbea90b6f4f3cd0ceb43bea747e818" value="form-88dbea90b6f4f3cd0ceb43bea747e818" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80678285" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>