Congress dismisses present speculations; Rahul’s whereabouts still a question

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But the Congress rushed to rubbish Sharma’s claim and questioned his locus standi. The party fielded AICC in-charge of Delhi, P C Chacko, to counter Sharma’s claims. Rahul’s office too said the photographs were taken in 2008. “Jagdish Sharma has nothing to do with the Congress party. He is not a party man. He has no connection with the family,” said Chacko.

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Asked about Rahul’s whereabouts, Chacko said his privacy should be respected. “The party has already announced that he has gone on leave. It is not fair then to ask where he has gone. Every person has a right to privacy,” he said.

Sharma’s claim came a day after senior general secretary Digvijaya Singh denied that Rahul had gone abroad. Many foreign locales, from Bangkok to Bahamas and Greece to Munich, have been rumoured to be Rahul’s destination.

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Former union minister Kishore Chandra Deo, who has been critical of the way the Congress is functioning, said Rahul’s leave was not the real issue. The real issue, he said, is about fixing accountability and responsibility of party leaders, both in the states and at the AICC.

Asked about the source of the photographs, Sharma told The Indian Express: “I procured it from my sources. Rahul is in Uttarakhand. To be precise, near Gangotri. No leader is with him. Only the SPG guards and domestic help.”

Asked why he chose to make it public, he said: “There have been rumours that Rahul is enjoying a holiday in Bangkok. BJP leaders have been making fun of him. I don’t know why the Congress leaders are not coming forward to defend him. I am a Congress worker and cannot tolerate such insult being heaped on Rahul. They are trying to defame him.”

“I just wanted to tell the world that he is not enjoying in Bangkok but is in Uttarakhand, near Ma Ganga. He is thinking about ways to revive the party,” he said.

Sharma claimed to enjoy close links with Priyanka and Robert Vadra. On election result days, he is a regular outside the AICC headquarters, carrying placards demanding that that Priyanka be brought in to “save” the party.