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High voltage drama ends with Sonia to continue for �few months�

New Delhi | 24-Aug-2020

Within the span of just a day, the Congress party danced a full circle around interim party president Sonia Gandhi.
The Congress Working Committee meeting that started with a roar of senior party leaders seeking a full-time party president -- in the process getting a tongue-lashing by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra -- ended in a whimper with the party choosing status quo over change.
Tweets were posted and later deleted, charges of BJP links were made and later denied, emotions and loyalties were displayed in a liberal measure, but in the end, the grand old party firmly decided not to take a decision. So, Sonia Gandhi it was and Sonia Gandhi it is.
After seven hours of high-octane drama at the CWC meeting on Monday, Sonia Gandhi will continue as the interim president of the Congress party for now.
Sources have said that a unanimous decision was taken that Sonia Gandhi continues as interim Congress president for the next six months and that a new chief will be selected within this period.
"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," said Congress leader KH Muniyappa.
Even though Sonia Gandhi insisted on leaving her post as Congress chief, the party has once again looked to her to steer the ship from the troubled waters of its leadership crisis.
She had reportedly also asked the Congress Working Committee to initiate the process for selecting a new party chief.
In her opening remarks at the meeting, called in the wake of a section of leaders seeking a "full time and visible" Congress president, Sonia Gandhi made the offer to quit saying she had given a detailed reply on the issue to AICC general secretary K C Venugopal.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who spoke after Gandhi, urged her to continue, so did former Defence Minister AK Antony, with both the veterans criticising the letter by some party leaders, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik, who are a part of the CWC, the party's highest decision-making body.
Sources added that during the meeting, Rahul Gandhi in his speech questioned the timing of the letter, which was sent to Sonia Gandhi when she was in Gangaram hospital and under medication. He, reportedly also alleged that those who had written the letter were colluding with the BJP.
However, Congress strongly denied that Rahul Gandhi had made any such comment.
But the damage was done. Senior party leader Kapil Sibal took umbrage to the alleged remarks and tweeted "Rahul says 'we are colluding with BJP'. Succeeded in Rajasthan High Court defending the Congress Party. Defending party in Manipur to bring down BJP government."
"Last 30 years have never made a statement in favour of BJP on any issue. Yet 'we are colluding with the BJP'!" he added.
Sibal later made a U-turn and said he was withdrawing his tweet after a call from Rahul Gandhi where the latter assured that he had not made such a remark.
Another letter writer, Ghulam Nabi Azad, too, clarified that Rahul Gandhi had not accused party leaders of colluding with the BJP.