Want Sonia Gandhi To Remain Party Chief, Says Amarinder Singh To NDTV

New Delhi: The recurrent chorus from the Congress asking for Rahul Gandhi to take over as president of the party is missing one prominent voice- that of Captain Amarinder Singh, the party's chief in Punjab. "Look, I have worked very closely with Soniaji and she is a great leader to have," the 74-year-old told NDTV today.

Though Rahul Gandhi's leadership of the party's campaign for the national election restrained the Congress to its worst performance ever, veterans like Digvijaya Singh have said that it's time for him to accept a promotion that's his for the asking, with Mrs Gandhi, 69, moving to the role of a sort of Chairman Emeritus.

Not yet, advised the Captain, though he said that it's a decision that mother and son must take together, and that the Congress will comply. "She maybe tired  - I also get exhausted. Maybe she feels that the time has come that she wants to go and rest, and she is tired of handling it in which case the Vice President takes over, and Rahul can handle it."
 Explaining why he feels she should not exit as President just yet (she took the office in 1998), Captain Singh, who is hoping to replace the Akali-BJP coalition in governing Punjab, said, "She believes in the modern concept of management. Give that person a task, and if you perform back into it... when there was a dissent movement against me when I was Chief Minister, she backed me to the hilt at that stage and if somebody doesn't perform, then it's out to him. That's the way it should be."