01-23-2008, 11:00 PM
[center]<b>After Gujarat rout, Rahul to tour India</b>[/center]
Jan 23, 2008
New Delhi, Jan 23 - Unfazed by the morale shattering defeat in Gujarat, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi announced Wednesday that he would tour the country in a bid to infuse young blood into the party.
The Congress general secretary also said in his first media interaction after the December Gujarat polls that his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi was overworked but she was refusing to take a holiday.
Asked if the sweep of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat had demoralised the Congress, he said: 'Politics is not a switch on, switch off business. We have to continue our fight.'
His apparent formula is to induct fresh blood into the party.
'There is currently a gap between politics and youth... The youth has a new way of thinking and the party has to respond to the youth's thinking and open itself to new ideas.'
Gandhi said he planned to tour most of the country shortly to interact with people, especially the youths, so as to attract a greater number of them to the Congress.
'I plan to start from the south,' he said, but quickly added: '<b>I don't think Karnataka is included in this tour.' </b> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Asked about media reports that BJP leader L.K. Advani had advised Gandhi that the Congress and BJP should not treat each other as enemies, Gandhi said: 'I am not in the business of making private conversations public.'
He went on: 'As far as the Congress is concerned, the BJP is our main political adversary because we don't agree on fundamentals.'
He agreed with a journalist's observation that his mother Sonia Gandhi, who is also chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), was overworked but he threw up his hands to indicate his helplessness.
'Yes, my mother has not taken a single holiday for the last five years. My sister and I have tried every trick in the book (to make her rest). But persistence does not pay with my mother.'
Jan 23, 2008
New Delhi, Jan 23 - Unfazed by the morale shattering defeat in Gujarat, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi announced Wednesday that he would tour the country in a bid to infuse young blood into the party.
The Congress general secretary also said in his first media interaction after the December Gujarat polls that his mother and party president Sonia Gandhi was overworked but she was refusing to take a holiday.
Asked if the sweep of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Gujarat had demoralised the Congress, he said: 'Politics is not a switch on, switch off business. We have to continue our fight.'
His apparent formula is to induct fresh blood into the party.
'There is currently a gap between politics and youth... The youth has a new way of thinking and the party has to respond to the youth's thinking and open itself to new ideas.'
Gandhi said he planned to tour most of the country shortly to interact with people, especially the youths, so as to attract a greater number of them to the Congress.
'I plan to start from the south,' he said, but quickly added: '<b>I don't think Karnataka is included in this tour.' </b> <!--emo&:roll--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ROTFL.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='ROTFL.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Asked about media reports that BJP leader L.K. Advani had advised Gandhi that the Congress and BJP should not treat each other as enemies, Gandhi said: 'I am not in the business of making private conversations public.'
He went on: 'As far as the Congress is concerned, the BJP is our main political adversary because we don't agree on fundamentals.'
He agreed with a journalist's observation that his mother Sonia Gandhi, who is also chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), was overworked but he threw up his hands to indicate his helplessness.
'Yes, my mother has not taken a single holiday for the last five years. My sister and I have tried every trick in the book (to make her rest). But persistence does not pay with my mother.'