New Delhi: A reluctant Sonia Gandhi will have to continue as interim Congress president till a new chief is elected at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session, the party decided at the end of a stormy seven-hour Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday.
Sonia had offered to quit the post and asked the CWC to initiate the process of electing a new party president. But there is no immediate respite for her.
Briefing the media after the long meeting, senior Congress leaders K C Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala said that CWC hailed Sonia and Rahul Gandhi for being the “two voices” in the forefront of exposing the Central government’s “inadequate responses” to the crises the nation is facing.
“The CWC, reflecting the overwhelming view and desire of the rank and file of the Congress, unanimously resolved to strengthen the hands of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in every possible way,” the resolution read.
A committee will now be set up to assist Sonia to look into issues raised in a letter by 23 dissident leaders who had written to Sonia on the leadership crisis.
There was high drama earlier on Monday over Rahul Gandhi’s purported remark that those who wrote the letter had colluded with the BJP.
Kapil Sibal expressed displeasure over Rahul’s remark. He, however, later withdrew his statement following a clarification from Rahul.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, another signatory of the letter, offered to resign if a BJP link was found. But he also clarified later that Rahul didn’t say the letter was written at the behest of or in collusion with BJP.
