New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi, who according to sources has made up his mind to resign after the election rout, has found support from an unlikely quarter: Tamil superstar-turned-politician Rajinikanth.
Speaking to News18, Rajinikanth said Gandhi should not resign from his post despite sources saying that he has firmed up his decision to quit, which he had conveyed to the Congress at a post-mortem on Saturday by the Congress Working Committee.
While senior Congress leaders, including sister Priyanka Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi, have been trying to convince him otherwise, he has asked them to find his replacement.
The Tamil superstar also confirmed that he would attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the capital on May 30, but also downplayed the ‘wave’ that helped him storm back to power.
While he accepted that there was a Modi wave across the country, Rajinikanth said there was no Modi wave in Tamil Nadu.
In the southern state, the UPA had won the 37 out of 38 seats that went to polls, with DMK making a stunning return to win 23 seats. The Congress, a junior partner in the state, had won eight seats.
The actor-turned-politician, who is yet to float his political party even two years after his entry, further said that there have been other charismatic leaders in the past too.
“Rajiv Gandhi was also a charismatic leader, after him there was Vajpayee. In Tamil Nadu, it was Jayalalithaa. Modi is also a charismatic leader, but in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, there is no Modi wave,” he said.
The BJP had swept the heartland once again and made big strides in Bengal, Odisha and Telangana, but failed to make inroads in the south, outside of Karnataka, winning zero seats in all three states mentioned by Rajinikanth.
But the near sweep in the north and central India was enough to propel the BJP to 303 seats, a tally higher than even 2014, as Modi became the only PM to return to power with an absolute majority after a full term after Indira Gandhi.
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