#RaGaPollFarce: Protest against Rahul becoming Congress president gains momentum

The protest over Rahul Gandhi becoming the Congress chief gains momentum on Monday.

New Delhi, Dec 4: First, it was Rahul Gandhi himself who was reluctant to wear the "crown" of the Congress president. Now, when he is 'mentally' prepared to don the hat of the party chief and is all set to file his nomination papers for the election to the Congress president's post on Monday, a mini-rebellion is brewing within and outside the grand old party to stop the "dynast" from holding the top post in his party.

The protest over Rahul becoming the Congress chief started a few days ago when Maharashtra Congress secretary Shehzad Poonawalla openly attacked the Congress VP.

In fact, Poonawalla also wanted to contest the election for the Congress president's post but was not given a chance to do so allegedly by his party. Poonawalla had alleged that the party president's election is rigged to favour Rahul.

After Sunday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised Poonawalla for exposing the rigging that is taking place in the Congress presidential poll, the voices of dissent against Rahul's elevation gained more momentum.

On Monday, the hashtag--#RaGaPollFarce--was trending on Twitter. According to the critics of the Congress and Rahul (who is also known as RaGa), the grand old party practices dynastic politics as always a "Gandhi" gets a chance to become the party head.

Here are some of the tweets opposing Rahul's elevation to the party's top post:

"A youngster Shehzad has exposed the rigging that is taking place in the Congress president poll. And Shehzad is a senior Congress leader in Maharashtra. The Congress Party has tried to muzzle his voice and wants to even remove him from their social media groups. What tolerance is this?" the PM said at an election rally in Surendranagar, Gujarat, on Sunday.

"Thank you @PMOIndia (Prime Minister's Office). I will continue my fight against dynasty politics -- I will not be cowed down by attempts to silence me," said Poonawalla on Twitter.

Rubbishing the allegations that the election has been rigged, Congress party spokesperson Sushmita Dev said, "There has been criticism on whether the Congress election is democratic or not. I would say that this is such an election which is being supervised by the Election Commission of India (ECI)."

Dev said when one talks about electoral democracy, here is full transparency in these polls as they are held as per rules prescribed by the Election Commission (EC).

OneIndia News