By Nancy Gulati
Congress Working Committee (CWC) Meeting Today News Updates: During the meeting, interim chief Sonia Gandhi asked the CWC to begin deliberations to begin the process of “transition” to relieve her from her duties.
Hours after high drama unfolded in Congress Working Committee meeting over Rahul Gandhi’s purported remark, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad clarified that Gandhi never said the letter by 23 party leaders was written in behest or in collusion with BJP.
“Let me make it very clear that Rahul Gandhi at no point of time has said, either outside or in the CWC meeting, that the letter was written at the instance, or at the behest or in collusion with the BJP….,” he said. He added that in the meeting he stated that some colleagues outside the CWC were making such claim and he would resign if they could prove it.
Rahul Gandhi today intervened at a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting after his mother Sonia Gandhi announced that she wanted to “be relieved of the post of party president” and questioned the timing of a letter written by over 20 top party leaders targeting the Gandhi leadership. But reports that he had accused signatories of the letter of being in cahoots with the ruling BJP were strongly denied by the Congress as well as the so-called “dissidents”.
Congress leader Kapil Sibal had also expressed displeasure over former president Rahul Gandhi’s purported remark that the 23 dissident leaders, who had written to interim chief Sonia Gandhi on the leadership crisis, were “colluding with BJP”. However, the senior advocate later withdrew his statement following a clarification from Rahul.
Sonia Gandhi had told her aides that she does not want to continue as interim Congress president, sources said on Sunday amid a massive controversy over a letter by more than 20 top party leaders calling for sweeping reforms, introspection and “a full-time, visible leadership”. Sonia Gandhi, 73, will either resign immediately or give the party a deadline to find a new chief, sources said ahead of a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, today. The letter suggests that the Gandhis, who have led the party for most of its 134-year history, can remain an “integral part of a collective leadership”. Mrs Gandhi has decided that the matter will be discussed at the Working Committee meeting today, sources said.