Battle lines were drawn ahead of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday with at least 23 leaders writing to party chief Sonia Gandhi flagging the leadership crisis and calling for internal elections, while another section pressing for the return of Rahul Gandhi as Congress President.
The letter is the first united attempt by Congress leaders for an intervention by the party chief to set right things in the organisation which appears adrift with the lack of a full-time president to take on the challenge posed by the well-oiled machinery of the BJP.
While the 23 leaders, including veterans Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma to youngsters Manish Tewari, Milind Deora and Jitin Prasada, have called for sweeping changes in the Congress organisation, section of party leaders see it as a move to derail Rahul’s return to the helm of party affairs.
“This letter is a new conspiracy to blunt the leadership of Rahul Gandhi,” former Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam said asking Rahul to stop being adamant and return as Congress President.
Rahul had quit as Congress President in July last year, accepting responsibility of the party’s second successive debacle in the Lok Sabha elections and conveyed that the Congress should look beyond the Gandhi family for leadership.
“In view of existing conditions, any further delay in promoting Rahul ji as the President-AICC can cause incalculable harm to the progress of the Congress party and can be dispiriting to the entire Congress family,” AICC Secretary Vamshi Chand Reddy said in a letter addressed to members of the Congress Working Committee.
The joint letter by 23 leaders to the Congress President is said to have been written about a fortnight back, but the Congress had officially denied the existence of any such letter.
Rahul has conveyed to the party on numerous occasions that he was unwilling to return as party president and was ready to work for the party as an ordinary member.
However, since his resignation as Congress President last year, Rahul has had a say in key appointments in the party and selection of candidates for Rajya Sabha elections.
Rahul had also stepped in to defuse the crisis in Rajasthan where Sachin Pilot had rebelled against style of functioning of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Pilot gave up on his rebellion after discussions with Rahul and his sister AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.