New Delhi, Aug 23: Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi, 73, is learnt to have asked her colleagues to find new party chief and expressed her desire to step down in a letter in the wake of many senior leaders questioning the party’s top brass.
Though the contents of Ms. Gandhi’s letter have not officially been made public, the move has prompted several other seniors leaders like Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and former Union Minister Salman Khurshid to come out in support of the Gandhis ahead of the crucial meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Monday.
The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue while more State units are supposed to back the Gandhis.
“Currently no other leader in the Congress can give the party a strong leadership,” the Punjab Chief Minister said in a statement on Sunday, adding, “any move to divide or destabilise the party would give advantage to the dictatorial forces.”
Ms. Gandhi’s letter is a response to a letter from a group of senior leaders including Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari Tewari, former union minister Veerappa Moily, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda among others.
In their letter, written about two weeks ago, the group questioned the Congress party’s style of functioning and suggested sweeping reforms.
Multiple sources told this reporter that nearly 300 party functionaries across different State units have endorsed the contents of the letter ,which are likely to be made public depending on the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday.
The group has called for a “full time and effective leadership who are active in the field, a mechanism for collective leadership and elections to the CWC”.
The letter was leaked to a prominent newspaper after the party announced the dates for the CWC meeting as Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had denied the existence of such a letter earlier.
The group is also said to be opposed to attempts being made hand back the reins to former party chief Rahul Gandhi and would rather push for decision making through a Parliamentary Board.
Other leaders, supporting the Gandhis, however, lashed out at the group claiming that “personal interests more than concern from the party” prompted the letter.
“Mr Azad is finishing his Rajya Sabha term early next year and is concerned about his political future. Similarly, the Lok Sabha MPs are upset at being passed over for the party leader's post and so on,” said a leader loyal to the Gandhis.
Some of the points raised in the letter have also been publicly articulated by leaders like Mr. Tewari and Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor.
On August 2, in an interview to The Hindu, when Mr. Tewari was asked what could revive the party, he had said, “A full time president, elected by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in terms of Article 18(h) of the [party’s] constitution.”
“The options are: (a) Rahul Gandhi could withdraw his resignation. (b) If he is reluctant for whatever reasons then Ms. Sonia Gandhi should be persuaded to continue notwithstanding her known disinclination for the job. (c) If the two are non-sequitor then elections should be held to the presidency,” he added.
“The elected positions in the CWC should be filled through elections, the Congress Parliamentary Board should be revived, AICC sessions like in the past should be held bi-annually and the process of internal elections should be externally supervised like the IYC. However most importantly ideological and strategic clarity is imperative going forward,” Mr Tewari had said.
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