Rahul Gandhi has all qualities to make an excellent PM, says Shahi Tharoor

Senior Congress leader Sashi Tharoor has said that party president Rahul Gandhi has all the right qualities to make an "excellent" prime minister.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. (PTI)

NEW DELHI: Senior Congress leader Sashi Tharoor has said that party president Rahul Gandhi has all the right qualities to make an "excellent" prime minister. "At a personal level, having had several interactions and discussions in close quarters with the Congress president, to my mind it is evidently clear that Rahul ji has all the right qualities to make an excellent prime minister for the country," Tharoor said in an interview to PTI. He said Gandhi's inclusive style of leadership, a willingness to reach across the political divide, the empathy extended towards aggrieved sections of the society, a commitment to the pluralist fabric of the country, paired with a distinctive charisma, humility and remarkable awareness, all suggest that he would be able to "fittingly live up to the expectations of the top job". "And at some level, one could argue that recent statements by non-Congress leaders reflect a growing confidence that Rahul is indeed the right man for the job," the 62-year-old leader said. Tharoor's remarks came days after DMK president MK Stalin vowed to make Gandhi the next prime minister. Tharoor, who is an MP from Thiruvananthapuram, also said the issue of PM candidate is likely to be decided after the 2019 polls "collectively" by the party and its allies. He said the recent assembly elections have made it clear that the Congress remains the only alternative political party with a pan-India presence, and therefore, would be the "natural fulcrum" for any national alliance. On whether the dynamics of a possible grand alliance has changed with the Congress' win in the Hindi heartland states, Tharoor said he believes that it is still too early to tell, though the signs from the poll results certainly augur well for the fortunes of the Congress. "The voters have signalled that they are tired of being taken for a ride by the BJP and are open to climbing on the Congress bandwagon instead," the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said. In the next few months, the Congress will demonstrate anew that it has the vision and the capacity to restore, across the country, the voters' faith that the party can deliver the right results for them, the former Union minister asserted. He also said the Congress is likely to have pre and post-poll alliances, including an existing set of arrangement with partners that the Congress has in some states. The question of whether or not there will officially be a grand alliance among the Opposition parties remains to be seen, he said.