Veteran Congress leader, Mallikarjun Kharge, who is in the contest for the AICC president election, said on October 8 that his age was no impediment to his election and was committed to implementing the party's decision to give 50% party posts to youngsters giving them more space in decision making.
Mr. Kharge, who was in Hyderabad to meet the PCC delegates and seek their support, dismissed the arguments that the “age-old party was looking at an 80-year-old for its revival”.
“I am 80 years old but my commitment to the ‘Udaipur Declaration’ to encourage youngsters remains young,” he said while speaking to reporters.
“We will bring in youngsters across sections focusing on farmers, women and all social groups if elected as Congress president,” he said even as he argued that he believed in collective leadership and consultation in taking decisions.
“It’s not ‘me’ but its ‘we’ concept that I believe in.”
He was referring to the recommendations of 'Chintan Shivir' held in Rajasthan in May this year where the stress was on providing youngsters opportunities in party ticket during the elections and also office-bearers in the party.
He said senior leaders and Congress workers backed his candidature for the election, which is being seen for the fifth time in its 138-year-old history. He also slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for raking up irrelevant issues on the party election and said it was laughable that a party that appoints its President without any democratic practices is trying to find fault with the Congress election.
Mr. Kharge also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah saying they want to destroy the Constitution. “They have failed on all issues and their economic policies were disastrous. Their ridiculous argument on Congress doing nothing in the 75 years reflects when they are selling all the PSUs created by the Congress Governments to make money. They are blind to the achievements of the Congress in Agriculture, Irrigation projects and the wealth created in India,” he said.
KCR’s ‘love failure’
Earlier, addressing the Congress delegates, Mr. Kharge described Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao as a man who loved one but got married to another person. He was indirectly referring to how he wanted to merge his party in the Congress after announcing Telangana but joined hands with the BJP after Telangana came into being.
