Congress to hold election for party chief in May: Sources
The Congress party will hold election to pick a full-time national president of the party after upcoming Assembly elections in four states and 1 Union Territory. The election will likely take place in June once the Assembly polls in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry are completed.
"Congress Working Committee has decided that there will be an elected Congress President by June 2021," senior party leader KC Venugopal said.
The decision on holding elect for a new party chief was taken at the crucial Congress Working Committee, presided over by party's interim chief Sonia Gandhi via video conferencing.
The meeting started with the address of Sonia. "CWC meeting begins. Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi addresses the CWC," party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter.
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The meeting is taking place in a backdrop of a report by the Central Election Authority chaired by Madhusudan Mistry wherein he made certain recommendations on the election to the Congress president's post.
Sonia took over as interim Congress president in August 2019 after Rahul Gandhi resigned in the wake of the party's Lok Sabha debacle in May 2019. There have been demands from a section of the Congress leaders for having a full-time and active party president and an organisational overhaul.
The CWC had in its earlier meeting decided to hold organisational elections, following a storm in the party in August last year over a letter to Sonia Gandhi by a group of 23 leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda, Prithviraj Chavan, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari and Mukul Wasnik raising these issues. Sonia had last month met some of these 'letter-writers' and discussed the issues raised by them.
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