Priyanka Gandhi ideal candidate for Congress chief, says Madhya Pradesh minister Sajjan Singh Verma

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Sajjan Singh Verma said on Monday that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is the ideal candidate to become the face of Congress.

This comes after Rahul Gandhi resigned from the post of the party president taking full responsibility of the Lok Sabha debacle.

Hailing Priyanka as the "best candidate", Verma said that she has a ferocious fighting spirit which is much needed by the Congress at the moment.

"She is perfectly capable of dealing with BJP leaders and is the only one who can pull the party out of this crisis," Verma said.

Verma also said that imagining Congress without a Nehru-Gandhi face is both foolish and wrong.

He was responding to reports suggesting that Rahul does not want anyone from the Nehru-Gandhi family to take up the leadership of the party.

On being asked Rahul's future course of action, Congress leader said that Rahul will take up the role of an advisor and contemplate on what went wrong in the past.

Recently, Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee President Kamal Nath had offered to resign from the post taking the onus of the party's defeat in the Lok Sabha election. Kamal Nath, who is also the chief minister of the state, had said that a new state president would be chosen soon to reshape the Congress organisation.

Verma said that Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Bala Bachchan should become state Congress Committee chief, on being asked if he would be appointed as the state chief.

Verma comments come amid political upheaval going on in the Congress party. Several prominent party leaders urged Rahul to rethink his decision and tendered in their resignations to show solidarity with the outgoing Congress chief.