Former union minister Aslam Sher Khan on Friday, 7 June, said he has offered to take over as the Congress President after Rahul Gandhi said he wanted someone from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to assume responsibility.
Khan is the first to stake claim to the post after Gandhi offered his resignation at the Congress Working Committee meeting in Delhi on 25 May after losing in the Lok Sabha elections. However, the party had unanimously rejected the offer.
“I wrote the letter when Rahul Gandhi offered to leave the post of Congress President and asked someone from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family to take over his role. In the letter, I mentioned that if Rahul wanted to continue at the post he very well could, but if not, then I would like to assume the responsibility for two years,” he said, reported ANI.
Khan was a two-term Lok Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh. He was also part of the hockey team that won the 1975 world cup at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Khan believes he is suited for the job based on his experience as a politician and a player.
“As a hockey player, I have proven my capability to perform in such situations. When India was trailing 2-1 in the semi-final match of the 1975 World Cup, I was given an opportunity to come on as a substitute in the dying moments of the game and used my resolve and self-belief to successfully score an equaliser for the Indian team. As history goes, Indian won the match and went on to lift the World Cup trophy which is the only one till date,” he wrote, reported Hindustan Times.
Khan insisted that he wanted to revamp the party and had no personal agenda.
“The letter was not written for personal gain. It is because I believe Congress needs a makeover and it needs to be realigned with the nationalist identity. It is because of these reasons that I became ready to assume the responsibilities when the party is going through tough times,” he said, reported ANI.
He said that it was the narrative of the Congress that “failed to connect with the people and they again went with Narendra Modi.”
(With inputs from ANI, Hindustan Times)
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