Rahul likely to be made working president soon

Succumbing to pressure from her senior colleagues, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has agreed to continue in her present position for the time being, setting to rest speculation regarding son Rahul’s elevation as the head of the party. However, Rahul is expected to be made the working president sometime this month, while sister Priyanka could be assigned a party role as well. The changes may come into effect before Indira Gandhi’s birth centenary celebrations start on 19 November.

The Congress Working Committee is meeting on Monday to take a decision essentially for moving up the organisational elections by one more year. A similar ex- ercise had been conducted on 8 September last year, where the party decided to push the date for completion of the organisation elections till 31 December 2016. However, since there is little probability of the internal poll process being completed by the stipulated date, the deadline is now sought to be extended further for another year.

Sources said that Sonia Gandhi, the longest serving Congress president was keen to hand over the baton to Rahul, who, in any case, has been functioning as the de facto boss since his elevation as the vice president in January 2013 at the Working Committee meeting held on the sidelines of a Chintan Shivir (brain storming session) in Jaipur. Nevertheless, several senior colleagues per-