In the Congress Working Committee meeting on Saturday, as Rahul Gandhi was requested by senior leaders to become the president, he said he will consider, news agency ANI reported crediting sources. He said he needs clarity at the level of ideology from the party leaders, the report said. Some leaders suggested that until a new president of the party is being elected, Rahul Gandhi should be made the working president, it said.
In a reference to the recent rebellion of the G-23 leaders who questioned the Congress leadership in the aftermath of the Punjab crisis, Sonia Gandhi at the CWC meeting said she is a full-time and hands-on Congress president.
“I have always appreciated frankness. There is no need to speak to me through the media. So let us all have a free and honest discussion. But what should get communicated outside the four walls of this room is the collective decision of the CWC,” she said.
“In the last two years, a large number of our colleagues, particularly the younger ones, have taken on leadership roles in taking party policies and programmes to the people – whether it is the agitation of farmers, provision of relief during the pandemic, highlighting issues of concern to youth and women, atrocities on Dalits, Adivasis and minorities, price rise, and the destruction of the public sector,” Sonia Gandhi added.
The Congress Working Committee on its nearly five-hour-long meeting on Saturday decided that the elections to the post of Congress president will be held between August 21 and September 20, next year.
At the CWC meeting, everyone was of the opinion that Rahul Gandhi should become the party president, Ambika Soni told ANI. However, it was also agreed that the decision is up to him. “Everybody agreed unanimously, whether he (Rahul Gandhi) will become (the party president) or not is up to him. Everybody is of the opinion that Rahul Gandhi should become the party president,” Ambika Soni said.
Rahul Gandhi had stepped down from the post of the party president after the 2019 general elections taking responsibility for Congress’s defeat. Since then, Sonia Gandhi has been the interim president of the party.