The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting is being held after facing a crushing defeat in the assembly elections. Leaders of many dissatisfied factions of Congress have demanded organizational change. During this, the reasons for the defeat will be reviewed and further strategy will be discussed. The Congress party has denied reports that members of the Gandhi family would resign from organizational posts.
The meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) began on Sunday evening after the crushing defeat in the assembly elections of five states. In this, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have also come to attend. The meeting is being held at a time when the Congress lost power in Punjab and also faced humiliating defeats in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. Sonia Gandhi has not been campaigning actively for some time, apart from Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi has been a star campaigner of Congress. Both the siblings also play a major role in important decisions of the party.
Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat, PL Punia, P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma have also reached to participate in the Congress Working Committee meeting. Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was involved in the dissatisfied faction of Congress, has also reached. After the defeat of the Congress in the assembly elections, a meeting of the dissident faction G-23 was also held, which was held at the house of Ghulam Nabi Azad. Many leaders including Manish Tewari had participated in this.
Sources say that the organization elections can be conducted before the scheduled time to choose the new president of the Congress. A decision regarding this can be taken in the CWC meeting. Earlier this election was proposed to be held in August-September. Before the meeting, the Congress unit of Jharkhand has passed a resolution in support of Sonia-Rahul.
Despite an intense campaigning led by Priyanka Gandhi, general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, the Congress could win only two of the 403 assembly seats in the state. The vote share of the Congress also came down to 2.33 per cent and most of its candidates forfeited their deposits.
Rahul Gandhi resigned from the post of Congress President after the party’s second consecutive defeat in the 2019 general elections. Sonia Gandhi again took over the reins of the party as the interim president. She too had offered to step down in August 2020 following an open rebellion by a section of party leaders ‘G-23’ but the CWC urged her to continue.
