Guwahati: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday joined the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in support of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as the next party Prime Minister.
“I personally feel that Rahul Gandhi will be the right choice to succeed Dr Manmohan Singh who, in fact, has already advocated for Rahul as the next PM,” Gogoi said here on Tuesdy.
About the BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi, Gogoi said, “Modi represents the capitalists and industrialists. It is only the Congress party which has worked for uplift of poor in the country. It is the Congress which has put into practice the Right to Education Act, Right to Food Security Ordinance, Right to Information Act, MNREGA etc. for the benefit of the common people in the country.”
“I have worked under Indira Gabdhi, Rajiv Gandhi and worked with Sonia Gandhi and has been in touch with Rahul Gandhi. I know this family very well. Their commitment to work for the betterment of the country and its poor people is of the highest order,” Gogoi said.
“I even talked to Sonia Gandhi some time back about Rahul Gandhi as the next Prime Minister. But she did not make any comment. It has been in my mind all along. Today, I have spoken out my mind after Dr Manmohan Singh himself has made known about his choice for the next Congress PM of the country,” Gogoi said
When drawn to reported upsurge of the opposition BJP in Assam under its new young state president Sarbananda Sonowal who was a former president of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), Gogoi said he considered BJP not a challenge and vowed to improve Congress performance in the next general election in Assam.
“The State BJP president Sarbananda Sonowal himself is looking for a safe seat. He has contested Lok Sabha polls in Assam three times so far and has won only once. Bringing Narendra Modi to the forefront of the BJP won’t help the party in Assam as the people of Assam remembered how shabbily the BJP-led NDO government treated the State,” Gogoi said