Rahul Gandhi proved his mettle, has all qualities to make ‘excellent’ prime minister: Shashi Tharoor

From a political novice to Narendra Modi’s primary challenger, the opinion about Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s leadership changed overnight after he led his party to a landslide victory in the three Hindi heartland states. After the recent Assembly election results, it took no time people started finding all the qualities required to make an excellent prime minister. After MK Stalin’s proposal to project Rahul as Opposition’s PM face in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, while some of Congress party’s former allies raised their objection, the Gandhi scion had found more soothing voices inside the party in favour of his leadership skills.

Senior Congress leader and Parliamentarian from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor said that Rahul Gandhi has all the right qualities to make an “excellent” prime minister but emphasised the issue of Opposition’s PM face would be decided after the 2019 general elections.

“Rahul Gandhi is our leader, which means that if Congress gets a majority, he will be PM. If Congress is in a coalition government, obviously wider discussions will be held with other coalition partners to arrive at a consensus candidate,” PTI quoted Tharoor as saying.

Tharoor said that the recent Assembly elections were a testimony to the fact that the Congress is the only alternative political party with a pan-India presence, thus, would be the “natural fulcrum” for any national alliance.

“At a personal level, having had several interactions and discussions in close quarters with the Congress president, to my mind it is evidently clear that Rahul ji has all the right qualities to make an excellent prime minister for the country,” Tharoor said when asked about Gandhi seemingly emerging as the opposition’s PM face.

The Congress leader praised Rahul Gandhi for his inclusive style of leadership, a willingness to reach across the political divide, the empathy extended towards aggrieved sections of the society, a commitment to the pluralist fabric of the country, paired with a distinctive charisma, humility and remarkable awareness and said that all these qualities suggested he would be able to “fittingly live up to the expectations of the top job”.

“And at some level, one could argue that recent statements by non-Congress leaders reflect a growing confidence that Rahul is indeed the right man for the job,” the Congress leader said.

After the Assembly elections victory in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Leader of National Conference, Farooq Abdullah, had also hailed the Congress chief saying he proved his mettle as a leader by defeating the BJP on its own backyard.