As the former President Rahul Gandhi is reluctant to take over the leadership of the party the election for the Congress chief and Congress Working Committee would take place in June next. This decision was taken at the Congress Working Committee meeting held via zoom on Friday.
However, some leaders questioned the timing to hold the organisational election after the Assembly polls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry. They were of the view that the party should go to election with a full-fledged President.
The interim president of the party Sonia Gandhi, while presiding over the meeting, flayed the Narendra Modi government for being insensitive towards the demands of the farmers. She criticised the three farm laws enacted by the Centre in September last.
Sonia also said that a Joint Parliamentary Committee should probe the matter as to how sensitive information related to national security got leaked to a TV anchor (Arnab Goswami).
The Friday’s CWC meeting was a significant departure from the last August one which had reportedly witnessed massive reaction from Rahul Gandhi following the leakage of letter written by 23 senior party leaders who expressed regret over the state of affairs within the party ever since the resignation of Rahul Gandhi after the party’s debacle in the May 2019 Lok Sabha poll.
But Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, considered as pro-Rahul, and senior leader and a member of group of 23, Anand Sharma got locked in a verbal duel over organisational election. At this point Rahul intervened to state that let the organisational election be held.
The last time the Congress party’s organisational election was held in 1997 CWC meeting in Kolkata.
