Rahul skips PM’s farewell hosted by Sonia,faces criticism on social media for “foreign trip”

New Delhi, 14 May, 2014

Congress vice president and undeclared Prime Ministerial candidate Rahul Gandhi was absent in Prime Minister Manmohan singh’s farewell dinner hosted by Rahul’s mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Discussions were on rise on social media over Rahul’s possible presence in foreign country at present.

On twitter, many handles criticized Rahul for his secretive “foreign trip” soon after the polls, while rival Narendra Modi has rejoined his work in Gujarat capital. Rahul was absence during Uttarakhand calamity, Nirbhaya and even on 26/11.

Congress leader Ajay Maken confirmed that Rahul was out of town. In a weak attempt to play down his absence, Maken said Rahul met Prime Minister on Saturday already.

“I have no idea,” a Times Now tweet quoted Congress leader Salman Khurshid as saying.

Kamal Nath, too, apparently was not informed about Rahul giving the dinner party a miss.

“He wasn’t there, I don’t know,” another Times Now tweet quoted him as saying.

An ABP tweet quoted unidentified sources as saying that Rahul was not in the country.

Omar Abdullah tweeted: If you knew he was not attending the dinner AND he’d explained his absence to the PM earlier put out the statement BEFORE the news breaks.

In absence of Rahul, the function at 10, Janpath was held as a mark of gratitude by the party whose coalition government the 81-year-old Singh led for 10 long years.

A memento was presented to Singh with signatures of top Congress leaders and Union ministers and Pallam Raju read out the dedication inscribed on it in praise and honour of the prime minister.

BJP’s reaction: