Rahul Gandhi to consider return as Congress president: Report

Rahul Gandhi has told party leaders that he will consider their request for taking over as Congress president. Calls for Rahul Gandhi’s return came from various leaders, including chief ministers Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh and Charanjit Singh Channi of Punjab during Saturday’s meeting of the Congress Working Committee in New Delhi.

Rahul Gandhi thanked all the leaders for reposing faith in him and said he “would apply his mind on their request,” news agency PTI quoted sources as saying.

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Sonia Gandhi took over as the interim Congress president in August 2019 after Rahul Gandhi resigned over the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha elections in May 2019.

During the nearly five-hour-long meeting, the party’s highest decision-making body also decided to hold elections for the Congress president in September next year.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, G-23 leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma also attended the meeting.

A schedule for full-fledged organisational elections has been put before the CWC members, Sonia Gandhi said.

The CWC meeting was convened amid the internal strife in Congress units in Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.

The G-23 leaders had also been demanding that a CWC meeting be convened, with senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal last month questioning who in the party was taking decisions in the absence of a full-time president.

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Azad had also written to Sonia Gandhi to convene a meeting at the earliest.

Sonia Gandhi urged party leaders not to speak to her through the media, according to PTI.

“So let us all have a free and honest discussion. But what should get communicated outside the four walls of this room is the collective decision of the CWC,” she said.

The Congress had in January announced to have an elected president by June 2021, but those plans were deferred at the May 10 CWC meet because of the COVID-19 situation.