CWC: Poll To Appoint New Congress Chief Delayed Again, Sonia Gandhi To Remain Interim President

Congress Working Committee: This came as Sonia Gandhi chaired the meeting of the CWC, the highest decision-making body of the Congress. Sonia Gandhi will continue to remain the Congress interim president until a new party chief is chosen. 

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi | File Image

With assembly elections due in four states and one UT, including West Bengal, in 2021, the Congress organisational polls has been delayed further. 

According to reports, a decision in this regard was taken during the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting held today. Several CWC members opined that the party’s internal elections should be postponed to after the upcoming elections, as the Congress leaders will be busy in the assembly polls. 

Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal informed media that there will be an elected Congress President by June 2021.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Congress Working Committee has decided that there will be an elected Congress President by June 2021: KC Venugopal, Congress <a href="https://t.co/JLcPjDHmB9" rel='nofollow'>pic.twitter.com/JLcPjDHmB9</a></p>&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1352549707365535748?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel='nofollow'>January 22, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This came as Sonia Gandhi chaired the meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the Congress. Sonia Gandhi will continue to remain the Congress interim president until a new party chief is chosen. 

Earlier, a group of 23 senior leaders had written to Sonia Gandhi demanding that elections should be held to elect the new party chief.

August last year in a CWC meeting Sonia Gandhi was asked to continue as interim chief for next six months. At that time CWC had resolved to conduct an internal poll by February to appoint a new president as Rahul Gandhi resigned from party chief post owing responsibility for 2019 Lok Sabha defeat. 

Meanwhile, the Kisan Congress on Friday passed a resolution demanding that Rahul Gandhi be made the party chief.

"Kisan Congress stands in solidarity with party chief Sonia Gandhi. And, it always remains indebted to her for the strong leadership and making the party strong,” Kisan Congress vice-chairman Surendra Solanki said in a statement.

"But if there is any change in the party's top leadership, then the Kisan Congress will stand with Rahul Gandhi. And the Kisan Congress working committee has passed a resolution to make Rahul Gandhi as the party President," Solanki added.

“Looking at the farmers' agitation, issues of unemployment besides others, the country needs the leadership of Rahul Gandhi,” IANS quoted Solanki as saying.