Bring back Rahul Gandhi, say Congress Rajya Sabha MPs during meeting with Sonia Gandhi

The Congress Rajya Sabha MPs met on Thursday, in a meeting presided over by interim party president Sonia Gandhi who is completing her one-year term as the interim chief in August. The Rajya Sabha MPs demanded in the meeting that Rahul Gandhi should be brought back as party president to handle the political crisis.

New Delhi:The chorus once again grows within Congress to bring back Rahul Gandhi to the post of party chief, after a section of leaders expressed their opinion, over the "urgent" need of leadership to the grand old party, during an internal meeting of Rajya Sabha MPs, chaired by party's interim president Sonia Gandhi.

The proposal was initially made by Congress' veteran leader Digvijay Singh, which was later endorsed by Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, PL Punia, Shaktisinh Gohil, Rajiv Satav and many others.

Congress leaders praised Gandhi for taking a tough stand against the central government over various issues.

Earlier, the same demand was raised during the meeting of Congress Lok Sabha MPs, on July 11, where Ashok Gehlot, Manickam Tagore, Gaurav Gogoi, and many others urged Gandhi to take back party's leadership.

The demands came in an "urgent" manner because Sonia Gandhi's tenure as Congress interim President will complete a year on August 10 and Congress Working Committee would have to decide either to extend her tenure or the name of any other leader to take the charge.

Rahul Gandhi resigned from the post of Congress chief while taking the responsibility of the party's debacle in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, after which Sonia Gandhi assumed the charge.

The meeting of Rajya Sabha MPs was being called by Sonia Gandhi to discuss the COVID-19, economic crisis, unemployment rate, central government new policies and the current political situation in the country.

According to the sources, Congress is going to form a group of leaders in Rajya Sabha to decide over the party's stand and to corner the Central Government on various ordinances in the upcoming Parliament session.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and ex-Union Ministers AK Antony, Anand Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Jairam Ramesh, P Chidambaram and Ambika Sonia were also a part of the meeting.

Party leaders also discussed the current political situation of Rajasthan where the Congress Government is facing a crisis due to the rift between chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot. The situation worsened when Rajasthan Governor refused to accept Gehlot's proposal to call an Assembly Session in the state.