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Indian Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi absent at Parliament opening session

Xinhua, February 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

India's opposition Congress vice- president and Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi has gone on holiday "for a few weeks" and was absent from a key parliament session Monday, raising speculations about his future.

Local media quoted Congress sources as saying Monday that he has "requested Congress president Sonia Gandhi for some time to reflect on recent events and future course of the party".

This followed a string of electoral losses, including the recent local polls in Delhi where the Congress got zero seat.

A member of Lok Sabha or lower house of Parliament, Rahul was absent from Monday's opening budget session of the legislature with President Pranab Mukherjee's important address to a joint sitting of both the houses.

He has been "granted leave of absence for a few weeks after which he will return and resume his active participation in the affairs of the Congress party", local media reports quoted Congress sources as saying. Endi