The highest decision-making body for the Congress, the CWC, held a virtual meeting on Friday to decide on the fate of the future leadership of the grand old party.
Interim president Sonia Gandhi in her opening remarks urged party members to work hard for the upcoming Assembly elections. Attacking the Modi government for the ongoing farmers’ protests, she said, “These laws have to be taken back and the party will push the same in the upcoming Budget Session.” She also asked the party to support the farmers’ issue on the ground.
During the CWC meet, Gandhi asked general secretary-organisation K.C. Venugopal to read out the election schedule as given by Madhusudan Mistry, the in-charge of the Congress election authority.
Venugopal, while addressing the press after the meet, said, “By June, Congress will get its new president, but the final decision will be taken by Sonia Gandhi.”
The CWC saw heated arguments among its members, mainly involving the G23 group which had written a ‘rebellious’ letter to Sonia Gandhi last year. The group repeated its demands at the meeting. Anand Sharma, P. Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad demanded early elections, which was countered by Ambika Soni, Ashok Gehlot and Sonia Gandhi. They took charge of the debate and argued that this was why others keep questioning the Congress leadership.
One leader also asked whether the BJP has any internal elections. “Many of us have been in various top posts of the party but we get elected after a proper election,” said Gehlot.
During the debate, Rahul Gandhi said, “We should get over with all this and concentrate on the farmers issue and the upcoming assembly elections of the five states. As discussed before, the CWC election process would be completed by May, and by June, Congress would get its new boss. That makes it clear that the coming elections would be held under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi.”
A fraction of party leaders thinks that since this Congress election for the post of party president will be only for a year, the Gandhis should push for a non-Gandhi name, as suggested by Rahul, who will be resigning from the current president’s post. Some party veterans and Gandhi loyalists such as Sushil Kumar Shinde, Meira Kumar and Ashok Gehlot are reportedly in the running for the top post.