Amethi (Uttar Pradesh), Feb 5 (IANS) Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Sunday said that her brother Rahul Gandhi’s aim was not becoming the prime minister or the Congress chief but building up the party, though she also stressed that he would not shirk away from any responsibility entrusted to him.
Asked whether time was ripe for her brother to become prime minister, she said: ‘We in the family do not think like that at all. Rahul’s focus is essentially on building the party as also towards pushing the development of Uttar Pradesh.’
‘If his work requires him to hold any position, he will take it up,’ she told media persons at a brief interaction during her whirlwind tour of Rahul’s Amethi parliamentary constituency where she has undertaken hectic campaigning and in her mother Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli seat.
‘Rahul does not see his career in terms of becoming prime minister or the party president as the media is always trying to project. You all might think like that, but neither he nor do we, members of his family, perceive things in that light,’ she said.
Praising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she said: ‘And I fail to understand where is the question of getting a new prime minister when we have an extremely good, honest and capable person holding that office.’
Priyanka was all praise for her brother’s efforts to rebuild the Congress in Uttar Pradesh.
Asked whether Rahul had staked too much of his personal reputation in the assembly election, she shot back: ‘I would like to tell you that Rahul is more concerned about adding more strength to the party rather then worrying about the way the poll results would impact his reputation or status.’
‘Hadn’t he already spelt this out that he is not bothered about the election results? What matters to him is the effort he can put in towards strengthening the party, for which he has been striving since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.’
She also dared her party’s political rivals to state if she should join politics and said she took no offence to allusions of her election-eve visits to a Hindi proverb about the frog that appears only during the monsoon.
‘I am the barsati maindak (frog who appears in rainy season), not Rahul Gandhi. Everyone knows I come to (Rae Bareli and Amethi) to coordinate elections. There is nothing to hide in this,’ she said.
‘What do they want, should I come in politics… Should I stay out or join it… Ask Rajnathji (Bharatiya Janata Party leader Rajnath Singh), ask (Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and Chief Minister) Mayawatiji,’ she said.
Asked about Congress’ expected performance, Priyanka remarked: ‘Well, I am not an astrologer so I cannot speculate. I am pretty confident that the numbers will be much higher than the last election.’
Alleging that Uttar Pradesh had suffered largely on account of large-scale corruption and poor law and order, she said that people are fed up with the kind of regimes they have seen over the past two decades and are looking for a change.
On the allegations against Home Minister P. Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum case, Priyanka said: ‘I feel sad when he has to waste his time responding to the rants of people who are not concerned about the kind of serious issues he has to deal with as the country’s home minister.
Earlier, while addressing a series of public meetings, she trained her guns at Mayawati, saying: ‘It is for the people of this state to now decide whether they want a government, which works for their larger good or one which spends crores on buildings and monuments.’
‘Remember, it is you who create leaders; you form the government; so you alone can teach a lesson to such leaders, who do not have any concern for the common masses and who consider political power as an opportunity of self aggrandizement,’ she told the people.
