Top Congress panel to pick Rahul Gandhi’s replacement as party chief next week

The matter of Rahul Gandhi’s successor was brought up at a general secretaries’ meeting. Leaders said it was urgent because of upcoming state elections.

Hoardings at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi | ThePrint | Manisha Mondal

New Delhi: The suspense over Rahul Gandhi’s replacement as Congress president is likely to be over next week.

At a meeting of party general secretaries Thursday, K.C. Venugopal told his colleagues that the Congress Working Committee (CWC) will be convened immediately after Parliament session ends on 7 August, and it will choose an interim president.

This came after the Congress’ general secretary in-charge of Jharkhand, R.P.N. Singh, said the issue had become urgent, pointing out that crucial assembly elections are around the corner in a number of states. Singh’s comment found echo in the party’s Haryana in-charge, Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Jharkhand and Haryana are both set to go to polls in October, along with Maharashtra.

Preparations on hold

The Congress has been in a limbo since Gandhi publicly announced his decision to step down as Congress president. He has, however, been authorising the appointment of new state Congress chiefs, till such time as the CWC chooses a successor.

“Preparations for the elections can only begin once a decision is taken at the central level,” a senior leader told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity. “Elections are almost here and no work is being done on the ground.”

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the general secretary in-charge of UP (East), whose name has been proposed by many leaders as the perfect successor to her brother, was present at the meeting. But while she discussed other issues, sources said she remained silent on the issue of choosing the next president.

Many leaders are upset that the party has not yet elected a successor, despite Gandhi taking responsibility for the Lok Sabha poll defeat and officially resigning.

Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor has been the most recent one to raise the issue, calling for an election, not just for the post of president, but also the entire CWC. Earlier, senior leaders Janardhan Dwivedi and Karan Singh had said that the party needed to act swiftly and elect an interim chief.