Congress to have an elected party president by June 2021 at any cost, says KC Venugopal

Congress leader KC Venugopal on Friday said the Congress Working Committee has decided that there will be an elected party chief by June.

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Congress to have an elected party president by June 2021 at any cost, says KC Venugopal
Congress President Sonia Gandhi with party leaders KC Venugopal and Rahul Gandhi. (PTI File Photo)

Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal has said the party will have an elected president by June “at any cost”.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) has decided that the party will have an elected party President by June 2021, AICC General Secretary Organisation KC Venugopal said on Friday.

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As per reports, the Congress Central Election Authority proposed holding of polls for electing the party president and AICC session on May 29.

What happened at the CWC meet

The crucial meeting of the CWC, the party's highest decision-making body, met to discuss the issue on Friday. The virtual meeting started with the address of party chief Sonia Gandhi, who is chairing the meeting.

After her address, Sonia Gandhi asked AICC General Secretary Organisation KC Venugopal to read out the Organisational Election Schedule sent by Chairperson of the Central Election Authority.

The CEC chaired by Madhusudan Mistry proposed that the AICC Session and the party president's election be held on May 29, the sources told PTI.

Demand for a new Congress president

Sonia Gandhi took over as interim Congress president in August 2019 after Rahul Gandhi resigned in the wake of the party's Lok Sabha debacle in May 2019.

There have been demands from a section of the Congress leaders for having a full-time and active party president and an organisational overhaul.

The CWC had in its earlier meeting decided to hold organisational elections, following a storm in the party in August last year over a letter to Sonia Gandhi by a group of 23 leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda, Prithviraj Chavan, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari and Mukul Wasnik raising these issues.

Sonia Gandhi had last month met some of these 'letter-writers' and discussed the issues raised by them.

(With PTI inputs)

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