State Units Root for Rahul Gandhi to Lead a Party

New Delhi: After meeting for two hours, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Saturday decided to meet again in the evening to choose a new Congress president even as it renewed its plea to Rahul Gandhi to take back his resignation from the post. Many of the subgroups formed for consultations among state unit party leaders have named Rahul Gandhi to lead the party. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul have consciously chosen to disassociate themselves from the process of choosing the successor.

A senior leader present in the meeting, that lasted from 11.10 am to 1.15 pm, told IANS, “The CWC members urged Gandhi to reconsider his decision to resign but he remained adamant on quitting.” Jyotiraditya Scindia then asked Rahul Gandhi to take some more time to reconsider his decision. In his response, Gandhi said he was not escaping from the responsibilities of the party, but believed that after a new President is chosen, he will get more time to work for the party.

Earlier in the day, after emerging from the meeting, Sonia Gandhi told reporters that she and Rahul Gandhi are not part of the five sub-groups formed in the CWC to elect the new party chief. When reporters told her that her name is present in the five region-wise groups formed to hold consultations, she said: “Rahul and I cannot participate in the election of the new party chief. Putting our names is not good.”

Gandhi told reporters: “I am going to Wayanad tomorrow for two days as the condition is very disturbing there” due to heavy rains. The CWC, the party’s top decision making body, met to elect a new party chief after Gandhi quit the post following the party’s miserable showing in the Lok Sabha elections. The CWC has been divided into five region-wise sub-groups to hold further talks with the state in-charges, state party chiefs, AICC department chairman, party MPs and CLPs to build a consensus on the name of the new party chief. (IANS)

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