Wrote a mail to Rahul Gandhi, asked him to come back, Amarinder Singh says

NEW DELHI: Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh on Saturday said Sonia Gandhi must continue to lead the party.

The former Punjab chief minister suggested that Sonia Gandhi must continue as the president of Congress. "Rahul should continue as vice president. Sonia Gandhi should be Congress president as she alone can keep it together," he said.

Referring to the Congress vice-president's lack of experience, Amarinder said, "In 10 years you cannot be captain of the ship. Rahul needs more experience and needs to travel when he is back."

He also said he had written a mail to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi asking him to come back, but had not received a reply.

Amarinder also had a word for Rahul's detractors. "Don't write off Rahul yet. He is very hard working", the Congress leader said.

The Congress has been finding it hard to defend a long holiday taken by Rahul Gandhi, and some seniors in the party are questioning whether the scion of the country's most famous family is interested in politics.

Gandhi, a 44-year-old bachelor parliamentarian, took a leave of absence starting in late February, and is now said to be returning to work later this month. There is no word where he might be.

His vanishing act has spawned a series of tongue-in-cheek comments about his choice of holiday spot and what he might be doing, and "missing" posters have been pasted on walls in his constituency.

Jokes aside, Gandhi's decision to go on a holiday at the start of a parliamentary session, at a time when Congress was attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over land policy, has led to doubts about his commitment to politics.

Senior Congress members, who normally pride themselves on displays of loyalty to the great grandson of India's first Prime Minister, are beginning to openly express frustration.

Rahul Gandhi is expected to be back in time to lead a farmers' rally on April 19, against the NDA government's land ordinance, a policy that Congress has called anti-farmer.