Congress president Sonia Gandhi will continue to lead and will take future steps: Mallikarjun Kharge after CWC meet

After the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting conclued late evening on Sunday, party leader Mallikarjun Kharge said that Sonia Gandhi will lead the party and will take future steps.

Similarly, AICC Goa in-charge, Dinesh Gundu Rao said, "She (Sonia Gandhi) continues to be the president of the party. Detailed discussion held about the 5 states elections. We discussed how to take things forward and how we prepare for the forthcoming elections."

Days after its election debacle in five states, the Congress' top decision-making body on Sunday brainstormed over the way forward amid calls for large-scale reforms to revive the party's dwindling electoral fortunes.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, party's leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and P Chidambaram were among those who attended the Congress Working Committee meeting which lasted for over four hours.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik were the only three from the Group of 23 leaders who participated in the meeting of the CWC, which has a large number of Gandhi family loyalists.

Notably, Former prime minister Manmohan Singh did not attend the meeting. Senior party leader A K Antony was also not present as he has contracted Covid.

The Congress lost Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party, could not wrest Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur from the BJP and the party's tally in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh fell to its lowest.

Meanwhile, the chorus for making Rahul Gandhi Congress president again grew louder as several leaders and workers voiced support for him to take on the mantle of party chief.

Rahul Gandhi had resigned as Congress president after the party suffered its second consecutive defeat in general elections in 2019. Sonia Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party again as interim president, had also offered to quit in August 2020 after strong criticism by a section of leaders, referred to as G-23, but the CWC had urged her to continue.

(with agency inputs)