By IANS,
Kolkata : Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi said here Saturday that he would refuse the prime minister’s post if the offer was made to him now because he was busy revamping the party and lacked the experience to take the top job.
“I would refuse…for two reasons. One is that I am now working on the organisation of the Congress party. It’s important that a pro-poor youth Congress organisation is developed,” Rahul Gandhi said at a press conference.
“I don’t think I have the experience to be the prime minister of the country right now. My father (late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi) was different,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi is in charge of the Youth Congress and has come out with detailed plans to make it more democratic by having leaders who are elected by the members. The experiment has been tried out in Punjab and he has set a two-year time frame to expand it across the country.
Rajiv Gandhi was 40 when he became the country’s prime minister in 1984 after the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi. Rahul Gandhi will be 39 in June.
Asked whether his being in politics reinforced the dynastic tag on the Congress, Rahul Gandhi shot back: “Manmohan Singh is not from the Gandhi dynasty. He is the prime minister.”
“You see me as a Gandhi…I can’t change that. I am from the Gandhi family. They are my parents and grandparents,” he added.