Fifteen months after Rahul Gandhi resigned as president of Congress party, the over 100-year-old political outfit is again in throes of a leadership crisis. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) met on Monday where Sonia Gandhi, who took over as interim President after Rahul’s resignation, conveyed her unwillingness to continue in her current post. The CWC’s main agenda today is to discuss the future course of Congress leadership. Here are the highlights:
‘No one except from Gandhi family will be acceptable as chief’
As the Congress’ top decision-making body CWC met virtually to discuss the contentious leadership issue, several party workers gathered at the AICC headquarters here on Monday raising slogans, asserting that no one except from the Gandhi family would be acceptable as party chief.
The scenes at the party headquarters were indicative of the growing tumult in the Congress with the party deeply divided on the leadership issue.
Sonia Gandhi called upon party leaders to start the process of selecting a new party chief, said sources.
Two consecutive debacles in the General elections of 2014 and then 2019 where Congress lost to the ruling BJP party triggered discussions time and again around leadership change. The latest turmoil started with former Congress leader Sanjay Jha taking to Twitter to talk about a letter written to Sonia Gandhi last week by a section of party dissidents complaining about a “leadership drift” in Congress.
The stinging note of dissent has been signed by a diverse group of party functionaries – ranging from veterans and known family loyalists to not-so-senior ones. The letter is seen as a criticism of the functioning of Rahul who, with his decisions and comments, has appeared to set the party’s agenda on major issues even as he refuses to reclaim the president’s post. The signatories point to a leadership void and seem particularly irked by what they see as Rahul’s reluctance to engage beyond a small circle of confidants. They held discussions on Sunday and will be doing so again after the CWC meeting ends on Monday. The letter is learnt to have warned that leadership drift has decimated the opposition camp when the country needs a strong anti-BJP platform to hold the government to account on economic and security crises facing the country.