Cong top brass pitch for Rahul as party chief

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday chaired the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in the absence of his indisposed mother Sonia Gandhi, where the members of the highest decision-making body of the party pitched for his elevation as party president. In the same vein, they also extended the tenure of Sonia Gandhi as party head till December 2017.

Member after member suggested that heir apparent to Congress president Sonia Gandhi should helm the party at the meeting. 

46-year-old Rahul was appointed party vice-president in January 2013 at Congress’s brainstorming session in Jaipur. The talk about his elevation has been going on for quite some time now, and the proceedings of the meeting gave it a new fillip on Monday.

Sources said the ball was set rolling by senior Congress leader AK Antony, who first spoke about the need for Rahul Gandhi to take over the party leadership. Antony’s suggestion received the backing of all other CWC members attending the meeting, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, sources said.

However, the meeting remained inconclusive on the matter as Sonia Gandhi’s tenure as the party president too was extended by the Congress Working Committee for a year. 

It was decided that the organisational election could be extended by a year. Gandhi, ever since his elevation as party vice-president, has shown no hurry for elevation to the party top job.

There has been a difference of opinion with the party on the timing of Gandhi taking over as party head.  

While addressing the CWC members, the Gandhi scion described Prime Minister Narendra Modi as being “obsessed with power and for seeking to silence all those who disagree.” 

Reportedly, Rahul also discussed organisational polls and strategy for the upcoming winter session of Parliament besides party’s preparations for the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur.