A seven hour meeting of the Congress Working Committee on Monday concluded with Interim President Sonia Gandhi continuing her tenure. According to officials, Gandhi will continue her tenure until elections are held.
"Madam (Sonia Gandhi) has to continue and the election will take place as soon as possible which is the unanimous decision of the working committee:," Congress leader and CWC member KH Muniyappa told ANI. PL Punia added that Gandhi had agreed to lead the party till the next meeting could be held, within six months.
Reacting to the news, writer Aatish Taseer suggested that things looked rather bleak for the moment. Taking to Twitter he urged the politician to "just go and let what remains of this poor party figure things out for itself".
"OMG: just go. For God's sake, just go. Don't go to come back. Just go and let what remains of this poor party figure things out for itself. Death has to be better than this eternity in purgatory," he tweeted.
Sonia Gandhi had been appointed to the post on August 10, 2019 after Rahul Gandhi stepped down as party chief, taking the responsibility for the party's disastrous defeat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Her one year tenure had recently been completed. Many leaders have reportedly demanded that Rahul Gandhi should again take up the post.
The key CWC meeting, which went on for seven hours, was held after a controversy erupted over a letter by more than 20 senior leaders to Sonia Gandhi in which they called for "full time" active leadership, sweeping reforms and raised questions about the party's present condition and direction. They also demanded elections to CWC.
Apart from Sonia Gandhi, the virtual meeting was also attended by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party general secretary KC Venugopal, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and former union ministers Mallikarjun Kharge and AK Antony.
(With inputs from agencies)
