Congress will have a new, elected president by June

Govt silence on military ops leak is deafening: Sonia

The Congress Party will have an elected president by June 2021, with the party's working committee on Friday approving holding the internal election after Assembly polls in five states. The Congress Working Committee (CWC), after a three-anda-half hour meeting, authorised incumbent party chief Sonia Gandhi to schedule the internal election after the conclusion of Assembly polls.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said, “Congress Working Committee has decided that there will be an elected Congress president by June 2021.”

The party elections will be held in May, after Assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry. Several Congress leaders were hoping to go to the Assembly elections under new leadership, however that failed to happen.

Senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik and P. Chidambaram

reportedly asked for immediate organisational polls. While leaders like Ashok Gehlot, Amarinder Singh, A.K. Antony, Tariq Anwar and Oommen Chandy said the Congress president's election should be held after polls in five states, including Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

In the last working committee meeting, the party high command faced an unprecedented attack and was under pressure to announce internal elections to the post of party chief. Last month the Congress president had met with some of the leaders who had written a letter to her in August last year demanding sweeping changes in the party. These leaders reiterated their demand to have elections to the party’s top post. The CWC also passed resolutions on three issues of national importance, including farmers’ protest, Covid-19 vaccine and WhatsApp chat leaks of Republic TV chief Arnab Goswami.

In her opening remarks, party president Sonia Gandhi hit out at the government over a host of issues. She said there were “many pressing issues of public concern” that needed to be debated and discussed in the upcoming session of Parliament.

“It is abundantly clear that the three laws were prepared in haste and Parliament was