The Congress Working Committee, the party's highest decision-making body, is expected to meet soon amid a number of voices calling for the uncertainty at the helm of affairs in the party to end and a growing clamour for Rahul Gandhi to take over the reins and settle the leadership issue. According to party sources, the CWC is likely to meet ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament and the meeting could be held by the end of this month or in early September. There was earlier a buzz about the committee meeting on August 22.
Sources said the agenda of the meeting would comprise fine-tuning the strategy for the coming session of Parliament, with issues such as the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic slowdown, unemployment, the Chinese incursions in Ladakh, the opacity of the PM-CARES fund and the Facebook controversy expected to be highlighted.
However, since the meeting is being held at a time when the leadership issue is being hotly debated by Congress leaders with a growing feeling that not having a full-time president is harming the party, both in terms of setting in motion a plan for revival and coming up as a strong opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
With Sonia Gandhi completing one year of her interim presidency on August 10, a section of the Congress has intensified the call for Rahul, who had resigned last year following the Lok Sabha debacle, to come back as party president. They insist that he can provide the party with the direction that it needs to counter Modi and the BJP. These leaders say that the majority of the party workers appreciate his constant attacks on Modi and the saffron brigade and want him back at the helm of affairs.
Leaders including Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari have said that in the event of Rahul not being keen to come back as Congress chief, the party should hold elections to the post.
The CWC meet also comes in the backdrop of a war of words between leaders identified as Team Rahul and the old guard, witnessed in a meeting of Rajya Sabha MPs called by Sonia to discuss the prevailing political situation. It saw senior leaders calling for introspection to look into the reasons for the party's Lok Sabha defeat and the younger set stating that any such exercise should also explore how the functioning of the second edition of United Progressive Alliance impacted the party's electoral prospects and resulted in its defeat in the 2014 general elections.
Interestingly, the Congress forcefully rejected speculation emanating out of an interview of AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in which she agreed with Rahul that a non-Gandhi should become the party president. It was in pain to point out that the interview was from last year and said that millions of party workers want Rahul to be the party chief.
The Congress had earlier this month, ahead of Sonia completing one year as interim president, stated that she would continue in the post till the time a proper procedure was set in motion to elect a new president.