Rahul Gandhi on leave before budget session, BJP says people have already sent Congress on long leave

Sources in the Congress said he has asked his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi for “some time reflect on recent events and future course of the party.” While the Congress did not spell out the duration of his ‘leave’, sources said he could be away for some weeks. The Budget session goes into recess on March 23.

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That means, he would miss at least the first part of the Budget session which began today. His absence comes at a time when the Congress is holding a nationwide discussion for formulating a blueprint for revival. A two-day plenary session of the AICC is expected to be in April to finalise the revival plan.

Sources said he believes that the direction that the party adopts at the AICC session will be of crucial importance for its future and he wishes to prepare for it. Rahul has been “granted a leave of absence for a few weeks after which he will return and resume his active participation in the affairs of the Congress party”, the sources added.

Meanwhile, the BJP mocked at Congress over Rahul’s absence from the parliament. BJP leader Prakash Javadekar said people of the country have already sent the Congress on a long leave.

BJP’s youth wing chief and MP Anurag Thakur said Congress has been reduced to 44 seats in the Lok Sabha due to the absence of its leaders in the Parliament in the last one decade.

“They were missing in the last two Lok Sabhas as well. And this is why the Congress has come to 44 seats in Lok Sabha,” he told reporters when asked about Gandhi’s absence.