Congress to elect new president in Aug-sept
NEW DELHI: The Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Saturday decided to hold internal polls to elect the party’s next president between August 21 and September 30 next year, and most of its members asked former party president Rahul Gandhi to return to the post at a meeting bereft of any drama over the criticism of the party’s leadership by some senior Congress leaders.
Rahul Gandhi, who quit in 2019 following his party’s dismal showing in the Lok Sabha polls -it won 54 of the 543 seats in the house -- said he needed time to think about this, people present at the meeting said on condition of anonymity.
The meeting, which comes soon after the crisis in Punjab, where chief minister and senior Congress leader Amarinder Singh was forced to resign (he subsequently said he would also leave the party), and high-profile defections of senior party leaders to the Trinamool Congress, was expected to discuss some of the issues, but HT learns that Singh’s name was not even mentioned at the meeting.
Instead, it was decided that interim party chief Sonia Gandhi would continue in that role till at least next August when the process to conduct organisational elections is expected to begin. That means the Congress will go into the next round of assembly elections, scheduled for early 2022, under the current team. The round includes elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Elections for the CWC and other bodies will be held during the AICC plenary session in September or October next year, general secretary KC Venugopal announced; polls for these bodies were a key demand of a group of 23 Congress leaders who first wrote to Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 seeking changes in how the party was run.
If anyone thought the CWC meeting on Saturday would follow the script of the last few meetings -- muted criticism of the way the party was run by some of the leaders of the so-called G23, drowned by an overwhelming support of the Gandhis by their supporters -they were wrong.
Instead all senior leaders including G23 members Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma called upon Rahul Gandhi to lead the party.
Former defence minister AK Antony made the first pitch for Rahul Gandhi: “Rahul should take over immediately, otherwise it would be tough for us.” His anointment as party president was required for “the future of the country”, he added.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot echoed the sentiment.