By IANS
New Delhi : Congress president Sonia Gandhi Sunday said that she and the party wanted her son Rahul Gandhi to join the council of ministers, but he wanted to continue with his responsibilities in the organisation.
“The party wanted Rahul to join the government, but he has expressed his desire to focus on the responsibility the party has given him,” she told reporters on the sidelines of an oath-taking ceremony for seven new ministers at the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP from Amethi, is a party general secretary and in-charge of the party’s youth wing.
Justifying the inclusion of young faces like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada, Sonia Gandhi said the government needed some young faces. “Which is why some young faces have been inducted into the government.”
She also scotched the rumour that made rounds the whole of Sunday that Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh could be called to Delhi to work for the organisation.
“He is very much stable,” she replied when asked to comment on Deshmukh’s fate.
Expressing concern over the rising inflation, which recorded a three-year high of seven percent in the week ended March 22, the Congress chief said the government was taking all possible steps to contain the price rise of essential commodities.
President Pratibha Patil administered the oath of office and secrecy to seven new ministers. It was her maiden administration of oath to members of the union ministry.
The new ministers are Manohar Singh Gill, minister of state (independent charge), Jitin Prasada, Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, Santosh Bagdoria, Rameshwar Oraon, V. Narayanaswamy (all Congress) and Raghunath Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).