AFTER LETTER, SOME CONG LEADERS BACK GANDHIS

NEW DELHI: Congress chief ministers, state units and senior leaders rallied in support of the Gandhi family on Sunday and urged Rahul Gandhi to take the reins without delay after a section of the party wrote to interim chief Sonia Gandhi and sought an overhaul of the organisation, complaining of “drift” and uncertainty in the leadership.

They also termed as unfortunate a move by this group of party leaders to challenge the Gandhi family leadership ahead of the crucial Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday.

The development exposed a deep divide on the leadership issue.

Congress CMS Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) and V Narayanasamy (Puducherry ), state chiefs DK Shivakumar (Karnataka), Balasaheb Thorat (Maharashtra), Anil Kumar (Delhi), KS Alagiri (Tamil Nadu) and Ripun Bora (Assam), Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, former Union ministers Salman Khurshid and Ashwani Kumar, Youth Congress chief Srinivas BV, Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore and former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah backed the Gandhi family, urging Sonia Gandhi to stay on until Rahul Gandhi is ready to take charge once again.

Rahul Gandhi resigned in May 2019, taking responsibility for the Congress’s rout in general elections, and Sonia Gandhi became interim chief. Opposing the bid to challenge the Gandhi family leadership, Amarinder Singh said it was not time to raise issue.