Rahul Gandhi will be Congress President next month, irrespective of the outcome of Gujarat assembly polls, with the party’s top decision-making body Congress Working Committee on Monday finalizing its organisational election schedule.
Rahul Gandhi will be Congress President next month, irrespective of the outcome of Gujarat assembly polls, with the party’s top decision-making body Congress Working Committee on Monday finalizing its organisational election schedule.
With no contestant in sight, Rahul taking over the party could be a finality as soon as December 5 after scrutiny of nomination papers, a day after the nomination filing exercise ends on December 4.
The schedule for election that will end up with Rahul’s formal elevation was approved by the CWC on a day, when a split in Hardik Patel camp was evident on the issue of aligning with Congress and NCP, who also ruled out any truck with Rahul Gandhi’s party for Gujarat polls.
Responding to questions on Gujarat poll outcome vis a vis Rahul’s elevation, Congress Communication chief Randeep Surjewala ruled out any “worry” in Congress over it, insisting the election in Gujarat is between 6.5 crore people of the state and the BJP, between the “money muscle power of BJP’ and ‘people’s power with Congress’.
There is a view in the Congress that the party will definitely perform better from the past in this Assembly election in Gujarat and possibly this is the best time carry out the long-pending elevation of Rahul Gandhi.
That the very election schedule of Congress runs through the poll dates in Gujarat is an indication that the party did not want to do it either much before the election in the state, or soon after election results to give critics an opportunity to target him.
Rahul Gandhi has been spearheading this assembly election campaign in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home turf in Gujarat and his meetings have been drawing good crowds.
At the CWC meeting which she chaired, Sonia Gandhi gave a farewell speech of sorts asking the party cadres to do their best to bring out positive results in Gujarat.
“Rahul and many of you colleagues here and in Gujarat are working hard for a positive result in that State. Let us do our best to prove that people are not fooled and that they will make the right decision and defeat the present dispensation there,” Sonia Gandhi said.
Replying to questions about the next role of Sonia Gandhi amid speculation that she could be continue as Chairperson of Congress Parliamentary Party or as the head of an Opposition grouping like UPA, Surjewala merely said, “Sonia Gandhi is our leader and mentor. She has always guided the Congress party. Her able leadership will always be available not only to Rahul Gandhi but entire Congress.”
Sonia Gandhi had become Congress President on March 14, 1998. Gandhi had donned the mantle of UPA Chairperson on May 16, 2004.
Rahul, a three-term Lok Sabha MP from family pocket borough Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, became AICC general secretary in September 2007, before he was elevated as Congress Vice President on January 19, 2013.
Off late, the appointments in AICC were being not only decided but even announced with the signature of Rahul Gandhi. Last week, the appointment letter for Congress state chief for Jharkhand was also issued by Rahul Gandhi.
While Gandhi will formally become party President only next month, the organizational structure in AICC already shows a generational change with a number of young leaders from Team Rahul taking over as Secretaries and General Secretaries.
With the organizational polls next month, the party is now formally bracing for a generational change in leadership after a gap of nearly 20 years.
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 "Rahul with Sonia at CWC")
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