“Heavens Not Falling”: Salman Khurshid Over Delay In Congress Elections

Salman Khurshid said on Sunday that he “can’t” see the heavens falling” for the need of a party chief as Sonia Gandhi was still at the top position.

Stressing that there was no urgency to have an elected Congress president, the senior leader of the party Salman Khurshid said on Sunday that he “can’t” see the heavens falling” for the need of a party chief as Sonia Gandhi was still at the top position and should be the one to decide on the leadership issue.

A former Union minister and among the leaders considered close to the Gandhi family, Khurshid told PTI in an interview that he would not have signed the letter even if he was approached by the group that wrote to Gandhi seeking urgent sweeping reforms in party, including “full-time, visible” leadership.

Taking on Gulam Nabi Azad, who was among the 23 leaders who wrote the letter seeking changes in the party, Khurshid said the senior leader from Jammu and Kashmir had been part of the top echelons of the party for years when there has been no such elections and still the party prospered.

Probably Azad wanted a change now in what the party has been doing over the years and expressed confidence that the leadership will give a thought to what he is saying as he is a senior leader, Khurshid maintained. He also said that leaders who have written to Sonia Gandhi always had access to her and could have approached her rather than writing to her.

“It is very clear that the important persons in this letter do belong to the top echelons of our party and therefore Mrs Gandhi has indicated that it was best that they could have discussed it within the confines of the party,” Khurshid said.

Responding to the suggestions made in the letter, Khurshid said that the discussion seems to be about electing a leader and the Congress president has indicated that it can be done at an appropriate time when physically it is possible.