Congress Working Committee to discuss leadership issue on August 24

Congress Working Committee (CWC) is scheduled to meet on Monday amid a raging debate within the party over the leadership issue and amid calls for Rahul Gandhi to return to the helm.

“A meeting of the Congress Working Committee will be held on 24th August, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. via video conferencing,” AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal said.

Efforts were on within the Congress to persuade Rahul to return as party president, a post he quit after a defeat in the Lok Sabha elections last year. The CWC had appointed Sonia Gandhi as the interim President at a meeting on August 10 last year.

Rahul, 50, had told party leaders that they should look beyond the Gandhi family for leadership, a view also held by his younger sister and AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

A section of the senior leaders appear to be anxious at a sense of drift in the party without a full-time, hands-on president and have called for introspection and internal elections should the Gandhi family refuse to lead the party.

Senior leaders Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari have pitched for organisational reforms and elections to the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body of the party.

Earlier this week, Priyanka’s year-old interview about her concurring with Rahul’s view on a non-Gandhi heading the Congress, created discomfort in the party which came out in full support of the former party chief.

Congress asserted that “millions of Congress workers” want Rahul Gandhi back at the top post as he is the only one who has been consistently targeting the Modi government.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has made it clear to party leaders that she was not keen to continue in the post for long and urged the party to settle the leadership issue.

Though Rahul claims to be uninterested in the top post, he appears to have a say in key appointments in the organisation as well as the selection of candidates for elections.

The recent Rajasthan crisis also showed that Rahul and Priyanka were in full command as they deputed senior leaders to resolve the differences between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot.

A section of the seniors believe that Rahul should come forward and lead the organisation from the front, instead of indulging in back seat driving.