Divided views in Congress over leadership question, CWC to meet on Monday

A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) will be held on Monday via video conferencing, said, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal on Saturday.

New Delhi: Amid the mounting pressure from its members over the need to appoint a permanent president of the party, Congress Working Committee (CWC) will be held on Monday via video conferencing, said Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal.

Speaking to media persons here, Venugopal said, "Along with discussing the current political situation of the country, Congress' highest decision-making body is also going to talk about the need of stable leadership in the party for better political planning. The CWC meeting became significant as the interim party president Sonia Gandhi has completed her tenure on August 10, after which internal strife reached to its peak to choose over the new Congress Chief. Therefore, the meeting has been called to set off this debate once and for all. "

When Rahul Gandhi resigned from the post of Congress President, owing to party's debacle in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he made it clear that a non-Gandhi should take that post. Till date, he is reluctant to take up the responsibility of leading the party.

In addition to this, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has also been quoted in a new book, backing his brother's viewpoint of electing a non-Gandhi as Congress President.

However, the instant clarification from the side of Congress party over Priyanka Gandhi's interview, mentioning that it's a 13-month old stand, shows clearly that the grand old party is not yet ready to consider any other name for the post of Congress Chief. A number of party leaders had even made the request to Sonia Gandhi to reappoint Rahul Gandhi over the post.

Despite being "just a leader" of the party, Rahul Gandhi had played a vital role in decision making during Rajasthan political crisis. Sending a team of his close aides to defuse the crisis and making sure of not letting of Sachin Pilot, clearly showed that Rahul Gandhi is getting actively involved in the party functioning.

As Priyanka Gandhi has also worked equally, along with his brother, to handle the political crisis in Rajasthan, it was also being opined by party leaders that the crisis could have been resolved much earlier if the leadership crisis wasn't there in Congress.

Though, there is a section of leaders within the party who are concerned over the leadership crisis in Congress. The chorus began when sacked Congress spokesperson, Sanjay Jha tweeted that 100 party members, including MPs, have written to Sonia Gandhi asserting over the need of permanent party president and elections within CWC. However, his claim was later rejected by party's chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal had also expressed his concerns over the matter saying that he is "worried" for the party. While Congress leader, Shashi Tharoor had suggested that if Rahul Gandhi is not willing to take up the post then Congress should hold fresh elections for both party chief as well as for the seats of CWC members.

Though the final date hasn't been decided yet for CWC meet, a trial meeting was being held on Saturday to make the party leaders familiar with a new digital platform, WebEx. As informed by a party source, from now onwards, Congress is going to use WebEx for all of its virtual interactions, instead of Zoom.