Sonia Gandhi to remain interim Congress president; Party hints at possibility of election

Addressing a press briefing on Sunday, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi revealed that Sonia Gandhi shall continue to remain the interim president of the party. She had taken over this responsibility on August 10, 2019, after her son Rahul Gandhi stepped down from the post following the Congress party's debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. At the same time, Singhvi stressed that this arrangement will continue only until a proper procedure for elections laid down in the party's Constitution is followed.

According to him, this process has to go through the Congress Working Committee and shall be followed in the near future. When asked about the prevailing confusion over the end of Gandhi's term, he clarified that no political party permits a vacuum at the top. The Congress Rajya Sabha MP added that the information pertaining to this would be shared in the public domain soon.

Abhishek Singhvi remarked, "Sonia Gandhi is the president, she will continue till such time as a proper procedure is implemented and it will be implemented in the not too distant future." He added, "Just like nature abhors a vacuum, political parties cannot function in a vacuum. It is true that the tenure is expiring tomorrow. There is a laid down procedure in the (party) constitution for elections. As you know it goes through the CWC etc."

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Congress president's post

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 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. 

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(Image credits: PTI)

(With PTI inputs)