No rift between Sonia and Rahul, it's just generation gap: Digvijaya Singh

AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh has always been a staunch supporter of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi. He has been the few among the veteran Congress leaders who backed Rahul to take over the reins of the party from his mother Sonia Gandhi.

In the recent wake of controversy over Rahul Gandhi's sabbatical, Rahul 'mentor' Digvijaya Singh said that the 'timing' of his decision to take 'leave' was erroneous, but defended his intention to take time out to reflect in the wake of electoral reverses suffered by the party after Lok Sabha election.

"If Rahul wants to reflect what went wrong why criticize him? Everyone wants some peace to reflect. Only timing could have been better," Congress general secretary Singh said.

Digvijaya Singh said that the one of the main reason behind Rahul's untimely sabbatical was his anger for some old guards for stalling his ideas and reforms, specially his attempt at democratization of the party. Digvijaya added that Rahul is unhappy over not being allowed to function independently by "vested interests" in the party.

He also said that Rahul was also unhappy with lobbies around his mother and adding that seniors had managed to influence Sonia against Rahul.

"Sonia is very democratic. She holds consultations with senior leaders of party. And they then have an chance to influence her," he said.

But Digvijaya rubbished the reports that there are differences of opinion between Rahul and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, and Singh said that Sonia and Rahul shared an excellent rapport on party issues, but acknowledged that they were not always on the same page because of the generational gap.

Digvijay Singh way back in June 2014 came out openly on Rahul's reluctance to take up the responsibility. He said Rahul Gandhi by temperament is not a ruling person while reiterating that Rahul should have taken up the responsibility of leading the party in Lok Sabha.

OneIndiaNews