JOIN USCongress president election nears, Rahul yet to reveal his mind
In nine days, on August 20, the schedule for electing a new Congress president will start but Rahul Gandhi is yet to reveal his mind about reclaiming the top post that he quit after the 2019 Lok Sabha election debacle.
There is clamour within the party for Rahul to take over the mantle from his mother and interim president Sonia Gandhi, but he told a group of MPs last Friday that he does not need to be the party president to fight against the BJP.
He has told his colleagues that he is not interested in the job and that there is no reason to change his position. Last Friday, he refused to give a commitment about taking over the presidentship to party MPs with whom he was detained during a protest against price rise.
The MPs told him that he should be at the helm, a source said, but he refused to give a commitment. However, he is willing to be the face of the party in agitations against the ruling BJP.
A group of leaders is trying to reason with Rahul to change his mind on the issue and they hope they will be able to achieve the objective when the election process starts on August 20. Congress has announced that it will conclude the election by September 20.
Though Rahul has not been the president, a number of appointments in the organisation have his stamp. Incidentally, in the midst of the election to the presidentship, Congress will start a 150-day, 3,500 km ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ from Kanyakumari on September 7 and Rahul will participate in it.
During the planning sessions, sources said, Rahul had made it clear to the party managers that the ‘padayatra’ should “not be Rahul-centric but party-centric”.
While resigning from the Congress presidentship after the Lok Sabha polls, Rahul had said that he would prefer that a non-Gandhi become the party chief. He has maintained this position.
There is also a group of leaders, especially those who are against Rahul, who have been demanding that Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi be made the president. Priyanka has not shown interest in the fight and a senior leader claimed she had said no to such proposals in the past.
In case Rahul refuses to take up the post, there is speculation in party circles that senior leaders like Mukul Wasnik or Mallikarjun Kharge may get the assignment.