The Congress president election may be deferred for a month. If sources are to be believed, then the deliberations are underway to hand over the party top post to a non-Gandhi leader “in view of the changed political atmosphere”. The Gandhi family has to take a call on it. Sources also said that Rahul Gandhi is still reluctant to wear the mantle.
With this in view, the post may go to any other senior leader of the Congress. As per the election schedule, the process for the election of party president is slated to take place after 21 August, in which Congress delegates from across the country will elect the national president. According to sources, elections of delegates have been completed only in 80 per
cent of the states and the process is still underway in states such as Rajasthan and Haryana.
Madhusudan Mistry, who heads the Central Election Authority of the party, may soon visit Delhi to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to initiate the process of election. After this, a new date for the president election may be announced. The poll is likely to be deferred for a month. In fact, Rahul Gandhi had resigned from the top post after Congress’ massive defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He wanted to hand over the responsibility to a non-Gandhi leader. But there could not be an agreement on this, following which Sonia accepted to be interim chief. Rahul started handling party affairs without becoming a president formally. When demand to elect a full-time president was raised, the party fixed election programmes. According to this schedule, the process was slated to take place between 21 August and 20 September.
However, Congress’ continuous electoral defeats in states followed by ED questioning of Rahul and Sonia triggered a debate in the party over leadership issues. A large section of the party wants Rahul to take back the charge of Congress president. At the same time, another line of thinking is that a non-Gandhi should become Congress president in view of the prevailing political situation so that a strong alliance can be formed against the BJP at the national level. The reality is that several parties are not ready to be in alliance under Rahul’s leadership. The party is not strong enough to put up a strong fight against the BJP as well. Any decision of the party will be quite crucial ahead of upcoming assembly elections. Moreover, the big battle of 2024 will be Congress’ existential fight.
So, the party will have to take a call on the president post quite carefully. However, there is no challenge to Rahul. He may be the party boss as and when he wants. But the question is whether he will be able to salvage the party from the current crisis. With all this in view, the party is not in a hurry. At the same time, the process to elect all PCC chiefs is unlikely to be completed by 21 August. The question is who else will be party chief if not Rahul Gandhi? It is for the party when to take a final call.