A new chapter in the history of Congress is likely to begin as the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi will flag off a series of meetings today which will be held over the next 10 days and the key takeaway from these meets is likely to be the name of a new party president.
However, the Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala maintained that “99.9 per cent” leaders are in favour of Rahul Gandhi’s return to the top post.
Today’s meeting is significant as it will be attended by the 23 dissenters who seek change in party leadership few months ago, including Ghulam Nabi Azad.
In yesterday’s press conference, Surjewala had said, “We are one family and we will sort it out.”
“The party will soon start the procedure to elect a new party president. An electoral college of Congress, AICC (All India Congress Committee) members, Congress workers and members will choose who’s best suited,” he said.
At the crucial CWC meet held in August after the letter by 23 dissenters was presented to the party chief, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi requested the party to relieve her from her current role and asked the CWC members “to begin deliberations toward the process of transition to relieve her from the duty of party president”.
“A year has lapsed now. In the interest of the party, I ask CWC to begin deliberations to put in a place of process of transition to relieve me from my duties,” said Sonia Gandhi.
The meeting came weeks after the Congress saw a stormy meeting of its Rajya Sabha MPs wherein certain leaders sought introspection on the 2019 poll debacle. Thereafter, around 23 top Congress leaders, including former Chief Ministers, MPs, former Union Ministers and CWC members wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi on the issue of leadership change and elections in the CWC.
The letter called for an urgent need for “full time and effective leadership”, which is both “visible’’ and “active’’ and an “urgent establishment of an institutional leadership mechanism” to “collectively guide the party’s revival’’.
It also asked for decentralisation of power, elections in the party at all levels and empowerment of its state units.
The letter is reportedly signed by many senior leaders of the party including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Prithviraj Chavan, PJ Kurian, Renuka Chaudhary, and Milind Deora.