CWC backs Sonia’s continuation as party chief, Azad says ‘happy’

New Delhi: After a marathon meeting stretching seven hours on Monday, the Congress Working Committee backed the continuation of Sonia Gandhi as party chief and passed a resolution expressing faith in her leadership after she asked to be relieved in the wake of demands from some leaders for a full-time, active president. The resolution also authorised her to make changes in the organisation’s structure to strengthen the party.
All CWC members, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, veterans AK Antony and Ambika Soni and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, questioned the timing of the letter written by some party leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari and some others seeking a full-time active president and described its leakage to the media as unfortunate. Cornered at the meet, signatory Ghulam Nabi Azad later told The Tribune he was happy at the continuation of Sonia Gandhi.
“We never had any problems with her continuation. We knew Rahul Gandhi didn’t want to be president and Sonia Gandhi’s term as interim chief was getting over and she also didn’t want to continue so we wrote the letter asking to be consulted for the appointment of full-time president. Our letter was written in the interest of the party and we never questioned Sonia ji’s leadership,” said Azad after Antony called his letter “cruel” and Soni questioned the letter saying the party had given Azad so many positions. Soni also demanded disciplinary action against the signatories.
The CWC while rejecting Sonia’s offer to be relieved and her suggestion to start the process to find a new chief attacked Azad and other signatories to the letter with Azad offering to resign against some party leaders alluding that signatories were influenced by the BJP. The committee with majority lauded the leadership of Sonia Gandhi asking her to continue and decide the future course of action.
The meeting also saw Rahul Gandhi attacking the signatories over the letter’s timing as it was sent when Sonia was hospitalised, and when the party was troubleshooting in Rajasthan.