The meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Friday witnessed some heated exchange of words between senior leaders Ashok Gehlot and Anand Sharma.
According to sources, during the meeting Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, without naming anyone, said that there are other issues in the country, however for few leaders only organisational election matters.
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"Party ne bahut kuch diya hai. Hum jo bhi hain Congress ki wajah se hain (The party has given us a lot. Whatever we are today is because of the Congress)," Gehlot reportedly said during the meeting in an apparent dig at those demanding early election for party president post.
Reacting to Gehlot's statement, Anand Sharma shot back saying, "We have also contributed a lot for the party. Have given 42 years to the party."
A section of leaders within the grand old party has been raising questions over the leadership. In August last year, a group of 23 Congress leaders, in a letter to Sonia Gandhi, had demanded a "full-time, visible leadership".
In an apparent attempt to pacify the dissenters, Sonia Gandhi had met the group which included Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda, Prithviraj Chavan, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari and Mukul Wasnik.
Congress to have elected president by June
Following Friday's meeting, the Congress announced that the party will have an elected president by June 2021.
The CWC decided that there will be an elected Congress President by June 2021 at any cost," AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said told reporters during a press conference after the meeting of the party's highest decision-making body.
"The CWC discussed the schedule of Congress president's elections in May-end, proposed by its election authority. All CWC members unanimously requested Congress president that the internal elections should not interfere with the assembly elections," Venugopal said.
