Ex-Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah backs Gandhi family's leadership, urges 'strengthen Congress'

On Sunday, senior Congress leader and former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah expressed lament that the leadership of Gandhi family was questioned within the party. He was referring to the purported letter written by many party leaders calling for sweeping reforms in Congress. Contending that there was "undeclared emergency" in India owing to BJP, Siddaramaiah called upon his party colleagues to collectively strengthen Congress instead of weakening it. 

Read: Sonia Gandhi Set To Resign As Congress Interim-chief, Tells To 'find A New Chief’: Sources

Rumblings within Congress

As per suspended Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha, more than 300 leaders representing all regions and states are signatories to the letter in question. Some of the senior leaders who have reportedly signed the letter include Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, Milind Deora, Mukul Wasnik, Jitin Prasada, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and Prithviraj Chavan. They stressed that the uncertainly over the leadership and the drift in the party have weakened Congress and demoralized the workers. The letter reportedly mentioned many suggestions such as the need for a full-time leadership available at the national and state headquarters, conducting elections at all levels including the Congress Working Committee and state level, the formation of an Independent Election Authority, and institutional leadership mechanism to guide the party's revival. 

Read: BJP's Amit Malviya Dares Congress To Keep Art 370 Restoration As Main Poll Plank In 2024

Party leadership 

Sonia Gandhi is the longest-serving president of the Congress party. After being at the helm of affairs for 19 years which witnessed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) emerging victorious in 2004 as well as the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, her son Rahul Gandhi assumed charge in December 2017. A series of defeats in state elections combined with the disastrous performance of Congress in the 2019 General elections, Rahul Gandhi announced his decision to step down.

After attempts to persuade him to take back his resignation failed, Sonia Gandhi assumed interim charge in August 2019. In the next few months, Rahul Gandhi stayed away from many important meetings, including the candidate selection for the Assembly elections and bypolls in several states such as Haryana and Maharashtra. Additionally, Sonia Gandhi reversed key decisions taken by him such as replacing Ashok Tanwar with Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Haryana. Recently, there has been an increasing clamour within the party for the Wayanad MP to take charge of the party once again. 

Read: Amid Congress Rumblings, Bhupesh Baghel Urges Rahul Gandhi To Take Over As Party President