After a seven-hour long meeting of its top decision-making body, Congress on Monday once again fell back on Sonia Gandhi to settle the leadership issue and asked her to continue as party chief till a session of the AICC can be convened to elect her successor.
Sparks flew at the meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), convened to discuss issues raised by 23 leaders in their letter to the Congress President seeking sweeping changes in the party, as chief ministers, young and veteran leaders alike slammed them for going public with their grievances and expressed confidence in the leadership of the Gandhi family.
“The CWC makes it clear that no one will be or can be permitted to undermine or weaken the party and its leadership at this juncture... that inner-party issues cannot be deliberated through the media or in public forum,” the CWC said in a statement issued after the meeting.
Congress also decided to set up a committee to assist the party chief in day-to-day functioning of the party, after the 23 leaders, including CWC members Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mukul Wasnik and Anand Sharma, sought sweeping changes in the party to make it more “visible” and “active”.
The stage appeared to be set for CWC endorsing the continuation of Sonia Gandhi as the party chief as leaders beginning from former Prime Minster Manmohan Singh to young leader Rajiv Satav attacking the 23 leaders for writing the letter, virtually questioning the leadership of the Congress President.
A majority of the members attending the meeting either asked Sonia Gandhi to continue or called for Rahul Gandhi to step in as her successor.
The meeting witnessed dramatic moments as Rahul accused the 23 leaders of “insulting” the Congress President for timing the letter when she was keeping ill-health and handling the political crisis in Rajasthan. He also took exception to making the letter public, which he said gave a handle to the BJP to target the Congress.
After Rahul's allusion to the BJP, Azad turned emotional and recalled his long association with the Congress and offered to quit if any links with the BJP were proved.
Senior leader Kapil Sibal, who is not a member of the CWC, also took to Twitter to express his hurt feelings and reminded the Congress how he had defended the party for years together.
Rahul swung into action and reached out to Sibal over phone to clarify that he had not said that the letter to the Congress President was written at the behest of the BJP.
During the meeting, Azad tried to reason out that the letter was not meant to embarrass the leadership, but only to draw attention to pressing organisational matters, but his attempts fell on deaf ears.
“Azad sahab, you are a senior leader. Don't try to defend yourself,” Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary, the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha said.
It fell upon the Congress President to let bygones be bygones and urge the party to move ahead.
“We are a large family, we have differences on many occasions but in the end, we come together as one,” Sonia Gandhi said adding that she does not hold any ill will or any other thought of any other nature against any colleague as she treated them as "part of the family":
Gandhi was learnt to be reluctant to continue as Congress President, but agreed to the overwhelming view expressed in the CWC.
“The CWC unanimously requests Smt. Sonia Gandhi to continue to lead the Indian National Congress until such time as circumstances will permit an AICC session to be convened,” read the statement of the CWC.