Gogoi bats for Rahul as next PM

Guwahati, Sep 10: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today supported Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi as the next Prime Minister of the country, dismissing any challenge from BJP’s probable contender Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
He also pointed that incumbent Dr Manmohan Singh has also “supported Gandhi to succeed him”.
“Though the Congress party has not declared its Prime Ministerial candidate for the next general election in the country, I personally feel that Gandhi will be the right choice to succeed Dr Singh who, in fact, has also advocated for Rahul as the next PM,” Gogoi told reporters here.
To a poser if Gogoi was not happy with Dr Singh as the PM, the Chief Minister pointed that Dr Singh himself had openly prescribed for Gandhi was the next Congress PM of the country.
He dismissed that Modi was a challenge for the Congress and 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, National Food Security Bill, Right to Information Act and MGNREGA for the benefit of the common people in the country.”
Gogoi also mentioned of his long association with the Gandhi family, from late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to late Rajiv Gandhi and now AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul.
“I know this family very well. Their commitment to work for the betterment of the country and its poor people is of highest order,” Gogoi said.
“I even talked to Gandhi some time back about Rahul Gandhi as the next Prime Minister. But she kept mum. It has been in my mind all along. Today, I have spoken out my mind after Dr Singh himself has made known his choice for the next Congress PM of the country,” Gogoi said, adding the Congress would fight the next election in the country under the leadership of Gandhi and Dr Singh. (UNI)