Udaipur, May 15: As Congress leaders deliberate upon the future course for the party at its ‘Nav Sankalp Shivir’ here, demands for making Rahul Gandhi the party president were raised once again, while a leader also recommended that if he is unwilling, Priyanka Gandhi should be given the post.
The demand that Rahul Gandhi should take over as the Congress president has been raised from time to time by several Congress leaders. The demand was also raised by some leaders at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting held on May 9.
At the Nav Sankalp Shivir, Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam suggested that if Rahul Gandhi is reluctant to take the post, party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who led the party in the Uttar Pradesh polls, should be considered for it.
Krishnam also told the media that Rahul Gandhi had resigned on moral grounds after the defeat in Lok Sabha polls, and party members have been urging him to take over the responsibility over the last two years.
“But if he does not want to take the post, as it has been the case over the last two years, in that case Congress workers want Priyanka Gandhi to take charge,” Krishnam said.
At the Chintan Shivir however, the message that Rahul Gandhi is being seen as the successor to Sonia Gandhi appeared to be clear.
The city has been dotted with posters of Rahul Gandhi, who presently holds no post in the party. The road leading to the meeting venue in the outskirts of Udaipur city is also filled with posters of Rahul Gandhi, along with that of Sonia Gandhi and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
A few posters of Priyanka Gandhi have also been placed on the way to the entrance to the venue, but in a ‘blink and you miss it’ fashion.
On the first day of the brainstorming camp, Rahul Gandhi was seated next to Sonia Gandhi, in the center of the first row. Priyanka Gandhi was seated in the front row as well along with party leaders Ambika Soni, Harish Rawat, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Mallikarjun Kharge, but far from the Congress President.
Sonia Gandhi took over as the ‘interim president’ of the Congress after Rahul Gandhi’s resignation in 2019. Senior party leaders have been vocal on the issue, and a group of leaders, which came to be known as the ‘G-23’, has raised the issue of electing a new president, and organisational reforms repeatedly.
After the poll debacle in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Manipur and Punjab, at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee it was decided that organisation reforms would be done under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress president in her message at the Nav Sankalp Shivir on Friday, had urged party members to be united, and chart out an actionable plan for the party. The process for election of the next Congress President has started with the conclusion of a membership drive in mid-April. A new Congress President is to be elected by the party by August-September.
