Rahul Gandhi calls on Pranab

On a day Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi described him as the most deserving candidate for Rashtrapati Bhavan and Manmohan Singh said the government would miss his experience, Rahul Gandhi had a separate meeting with Pranab Mukherjee.

Rahul Gandhi called on Mukherjee at his North Block office in the finance ministry. “We learnt a lot from him,” said the young Congress MP after the meeting. Rahul Gandhi also said “it was a matter of great pleasure that Pranabda is going to become the President of the country”.

Congress sources said the meeting that lasted over an hour would have been used to discuss vital party and government issues, as Mukherjee would resign from the ministry tomorrow and from the party before filing his nomination for the President’s post on June 28.

Rahul Gandhi’s meeting took place on Monday afternoon, soon after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had felicitated Mukherjee at 10 Janpath, Sonia’s official residence. The CWC had no agenda other than bidding farewell to its oldest member.

Sonia Gandhi spoke first at the meeting, hailing Mukherjee’s political career and personal virtues and hoping that he would enhance India’s prestige as President. The Congress President expressed happiness that Mukherjee was a candidate of the UPA, not the Congress alone, and expressed gratitude to the rival parties that have extended support to him.

Sonia Gandhi described Mukherjee as “a very able and deserving candidate” and said the widespread support he has received was because of his “personal qualities”.

Mukherjee spoke in the end, gracefully conceding that the Congress had given him much more than he could give to the party. He expressed satisfaction at his long association with the Congress and said he was indebted to leaders like Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi who trusted him and gave him such crucial responsibilities. He also thanked Manmohan Singh for having faith in him.

This article is posted by pressbrief.in