RAIPUR: In the latest example of political sycophancy, Union minister of state for agriculture and food processing Dr Charandas Mahant said on Monday that, "If Congress president Sonia Gandhi asks me to pick up a broom and sweep state Congress office in Chhattisgarh, I would do it".

Dr Mahant, who has been appointed as the new working president of Chhattisgarh State Congress Committee (CGPCC), was replying to a question on whether he would be able to do justice to the Congress as state party chief while continuing as Union minister of state.

He said that Sonia Gandhi has entrusted him with the responsibility of state Congress to carry forward the work of his predecessor Nandkumar Patel, who was killed along with other party leaders in a Maoist ambush in tribal Bastar district on May 25.

Mahant is the lone Congress Member of Parliament representing the Korba Lok Sabha constituency from Chhattisgarh and was inducted in the Union ministry nearly two years ago.

The Union minister's statement is reminiscent of Gyani Zail Singh's almost similar reported remarks after his election as President way back in 1982.

