Sonia counters critics, says ‘I’m full-time president’
Party chief slams Congress leaders for speaking to the media and says she has always appreciated frankness. There is no need to speak to her through the media
Responding to queries by Congress dissenters over who takes decisions in the party, Sonia Gandhi said on Saturday that she was the “full-time and hands on Congress President.”
“I am, if you will allow me to say so, a fulltime and hands on Congress President,” she said while addressing the Congress Working Commitee ( CWC) meeting.
The Congress President was responding to questions raised by a group of leaders led by Kapil Sibal over the party’s decision making process and apprehending that former president Rahul Gandhi is taking all the decisions.
“You are aware that I have been taking them up with the Prime Minister as have Dr. Manmohan Singh and Rahul ji. I have been interacting with like-minded political parties regularly.
“We have issued joint statements on national issues and co-ordinated our strategy in Parliament as well,” Sonia said in her remarks on Saturday.
In her opening address, she slammed the Congress leaders for speaking to the media “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.”
Rahul “will consider” returning as Congress President, sources said on Saturday aternoon ater it emerged that several senior leaders, including the chief ministers of Punjab, Rajasthan, and Chhatisgarh, as well as former Defence Minister AK Antony, urged the Kerala MP to come back.
Gandhi quit as Congress chief two years ago ater the party’s horrendous showing in the 2019 Lok Sabha election; his resignation threw the party into a leadership crisis from which it has yet to fully recover and prompted the reinstatement of his mother, Sonia, as interim chief.
Statements urging Gandhi’s return as party boss were made at today’s meeting of the Congress Working Commitee - the party’s highest decision-making body - which sources said had all but finalised a schedule for full-scale organisational polls to be held by September next year.
In her opening remarks, she said: “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.”
Sonia Gandhi’s statement comes ater ater senior party leader Kapil Sibal had recently said that “there is no president in our party, so we do not know who is taking all the decisions. We know it, yet we don’t know, one of my senior colleagues perhaps has writen or is about to write to the interim president to immediately convene a CWC meeting so that a dialogue can be initiated.”
In her remarks on Saturday, she also said the party is ready for the internal elections.
“The entire organisation wants a revival of the Congress. But this requires unity and keeping the party’s interests paramount.
“Above all, it requires self- control and discipline. I am acutely conscious of the fact that I have been interim Congress President ever since the CWC asked me to return in this capacity in 2019.
“We had thereater, you may recall, finalised a roadmap for electing a regular President by June 30, 2021.”
But due to the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic in the country, this deadline was extended indefinitely by the CWC in its meeting held on May 10, she added.
“Today is the occasion for bringing clarity once and for all. A schedule for the full-fledged organisational elections is before you.”
She also praised young leaders for taking over leadership role “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 be 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.
Never have we let issues of public importance and concern go unaddressed.”