INDIA’s GOP will continue to be led by Sonia, Rahul Gandhi. AICC will decide about next Party president in 6 months

INDIA’S oldest political party, which is gradually losing its status as the major national opposition to wrest power from the NDA led by Prime Minister Narendra  Modi, has reposed faith in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi rejecting the demand for effective leadership and restructuring the organisation through the electoral process. Several senior Congress leaders including the opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Deputy Leader in the Upper House  Anand Sharma and former UPA  Minister Kapil Sibal, had sent a joint letter to the party chief calling for revamping the party’s apparatus through a ballot. It has been decided the CWC, the highest body policy-making of the party, that Sonia Gandhi,73, would remain the party’s interim president for the next six months during which time an AICC session would be called and a new chief would be elected. Mrs. Gandhi said that she bore no “ill-will” towards anybody, referring to more than 23 leaders who were signatories to the letter which complained about a drift in the party, called for sweeping changes in the AICC and the election of a permanent president, someone who is “full-time, visible’’. Before concluding the CWC meet on an emotional note, she said   “I am hurt but they are my colleagues. Bygones are bygones, let us work together.”  In the seven-hour long meeting of the CWC, the leaking and timing of the letter was discussed more than its content. However, what the letter and the subsequent acrimonious and often emotional discussion did manage to achieve was in effect stalling the return of Rahul Gandhi as the president for another six months or till an AICC session is called.  Meanwhile, Congress is divided into three groups. One group comprises   Sonia loyalists, another group is loyal to  Rahul Gandhi, the most vocal critic of PM Modi, and the third group comprises followers of  Priyanka  Gandhi Vadra, younger sibling of Rahul Gandhi, who quit as the party’s chair following its debacle in 2019 Lok Sabha elections held in 2019. “The CWC has extensively deliberated on the letters… The CWC makes it clear that no one will be or can be permitted to undermine or weaken the party and its leadership at this juncture. The responsibility of every Congress worker and leader today is to fight the pernicious assault on India’s democracy, pluralism and diversity by the Modi government”. The CWC also said in the resolution adopted unanimously that the voices of “our two leaders” (Sonia and Rahul) have inspired a generation of Indians, both within and outside of the Indian National Congress, to rise and demand answers from this government which seeks to desperately distract the people through shallow and manufactured issues. The CWC is of the opinion that inner-party issues cannot be deliberated through the media or in public fora. Over 23 Congress leaders had in the letter, called for “effective leadership” that will be “visible” and “active” in the field. While calling for “honest introspection”, it suggested reforms, including decentralisation of power, empowerment of state units and organizational elections at every level. The letter also said that the Nehru-Gandhi family will “always remain an integral part of the collective leadership” of the Congress Party. edited by PK Chakravarty. Picture courtesy to The Business Standard.