Top Cong meet amid uncertainty over Rahul's leadership

Top Congress leaders are meeting here on Wednesday amid uncertainty over the leadership in the party, after Congress president Rahul Gandhi's offered to quit the top post, accepting responsibility for the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections.

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, who is not a member of the Congress Core Group, has also been called to join the consultations on Wednesday, amid talk of his likely appointment as the Working President of the grand old party.

The meeting of the Core Group Committee comes days ahead of the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha. The Congress has to make key appointments to the parliamentary party. Sonia Gandhi was elected as the chairperson of the Congress Party in Parliament on June 1. She has to nominate the Congress leaders in the Lok Sabha as well as the Rajya Sabha.

Kharge, the leader of the Congress in the 16th Lok Sabha and chief whip Jyotiraditya Scindia have lost the elections and fresh appointments need to be made to the key posts in the party's parliamentary wing.

After a maiden visit to his new Lok Sabha constituency Wayanad, Rahul has begun meeting political leaders – albeit selectively – but is still firm on giving up the top post.

Since Rahul's offer to quit, which has been rejected by the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party is deliberating on a model of collective leadership in the form of appointing a working president as well reviving the Parliamentary Board.

Besides Kharge, the names of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, veteran leader Motilal Vora, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan were being talked about as probable working presidents.

The possibility of having an interim president assisted by a collegium of senior leaders was also under discussion.

Rahul had offered to quit as Congress President at the CWC meeting on May 25, two days after the Lok Sabha election results were declared, in which the Congress could manage to win only 52 seats.

The CWC rejected Rahul's resignation offer and instead authorised him to restructure the organisation at all levels.

Congress has embarked on an exercise of analysing the Lok Sabha debacle with state units asked to submit booth-level assessments as soon as possible.