 "'Rahul our consensus leader; Modi trying to be larger-than-life'")
“There is no confusion at all. I want to make it clear that people make their own observations as per their thinking,” he said on being asked why there was confusion in Congress on projecting Rahul as the prime ministerial candidate. “We in Congress have accepted Rahul Gandhi as our leader by consensus.
Whenever it is his wish, we will wait for his decision, indication, suggestion or the direction. “As long as his leadership is concerned, that has been made clear and there is no chance of any confusion. When we have accepted someone as leader by consensus then we should move forward as per his directions,” he told reporters on board Prime minister’s special aircraft while returning from Indonesia.
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On Gandhi’s recent comment that he foresees a younger government, the senior party leader said, “You should ask that to Rahul Gandhi. Whenever he says something, he says that after very careful thinking. He also said many other things such as his teachers have been his mother and the Prime Minister. You should also talk about that.”
“If you want more details and clarifications on this, you will meet him here only one day and then you can ask him directly. “Party does not need to ask anything on this as it knows what it needs to do. It is the media which keeps asking these questions,” he said.
To questions on Narendra Modi, he said the Gujarat Chief Minister is trying to “blow himself up to a larger than life size”.
“We need not spend all our time on preparing a strategy to deal with Modi and I will rather let BJP do that,” Khurshid emphasised. According to him, as far as factual situation is concerned, there are enough number of people, not only in politics and Congress party, “who are making it clear what is the reality of people in Gujarat, whether it is about malnourishment figures, education, etc”.
On whether SP or BSP would be a better pre-poll ally in Uttar Pradesh, Khurshid said there were neither any formal discussions nor any decisions in this regard. “A K Antony was asked to look into the issue of pre-poll alliances and that will then be discussed further. We will do whatever our leaders decide on this issue,” he said.
When asked about the government returning to power, he said there would be UPA 3. "... I am quite confident that we will be back and we will form the government and we will have similar press conferences," he noted. On who would head the new government, if it comes to power, the minister evaded a direct response and said, "it will be headed by the Prime Minister of the UPA 3".
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma also expressed confidence that the UPA government will return to power after the next general elections.
Asked about Rahul Gandhi's comments about a younger government, Sharma said that the Congress party has always encourgaged young leaders.
"When people like Salman (Khurshid) and I came in, we were the young leaders, while the present government also has a number of young faces," he said, while adding that Rahul was an undisputed leader of the party and he has brought in a new thinking into its functioning.
"He has first connected himself to the socio-economic realtities of the country, rather than directly anointing himself to the top position," Sharma said, while adding that the decision on who would head the next government would be taken at the appropriate time.