In a significant event, the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday responded to a letter written by a group of party leaders urging sweeping changes in the party, asking them to find that they a new chief as she does not want to carry out the responsibilities any further, reports Hindustan Times.
According to the reports, Sonia Gandhi has told them that she is no more interested in leading the Congress party after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had requested her to return as the party president. Sonia Gandhi had accepted the post of the interim chief after the senior leaders of the party persuasion only on one condition that the party will find her replacement soon.
The Congress leaders had pleaded to her to be the party president after Gandhi-scion Rahul Gandhi had resigned from the post of the party president after a humiliating defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
At that time too, Sonia Gandhi mentioned in her response that she had insisted that the new president should be someone from outside the Gandhi family, the functionary quoted from the letter.
Captain Amarinder Singh opposes non-Gandhi president
Meanwhile, Captain Amarinder Singh has opposed the idea of a non-Gandhi president of the Congress party and has called that the attempt by a few leaders to seek a change in the leadership as a bid to challenge the Gandhi family leadership of the party.
According to Economic Times reporter Aman Sharma, the Punjab Chief Minister said Sonia Gandhi should continue at the helm of the affairs at the Congress party as long as she wanted to and Rahul Gandhi should thereafter take over as he was fully competent to lead the party.
Demand for leadership change is untenable, what Congress needs is a leadership that is acceptable not just to a few but to the entire party and the nation at large, there was currently no leader in the Congress who could give the party that kind of strong leadership: Punjab CM
— Aman Sharma (@AmanKayamHai_ET) August 23, 2020
Punjab CM Amarinder Singh has also claimed that the demand for leadership change is untenable as currently Congress party needs a leadership which is acceptable not just to a few but to the entire party and the nation at large. There is currently no leader in the Congress party who could give the party that kind of strong leadership, said the Punjab CM.
Senior Congress leaders write letter to Sonia Gandhi
Earlier in the day, it was reported that at least 23 senior leaders of the party had written a letter to Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi seeking a complete overhaul of the organisation.
Ahead of the CWC that is scheduled to take place on Monday, the leaders of the Congress party had urged for the need for vision and mechanism to govern the party with an effective central leadership which is active and also visible on the ground. In the letter, the Congress leaders had demanded re-election of the CWC and the establishment of an effective collective system of responsibility.
The letter was reportedly signed by senior leaders of the party including five former Chief Ministers, many Congress Working Committee members, sitting MPs, and several former Union Ministers.
The signatories to the letter include Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, party MPs and former Union Ministers Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, MP Vivek Tankha.
The AICC office bearers and CWC members including Mukul Wasnik and Jitin Prasada and former Chief Ministers and Union Ministers including Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajender Kaur Bhattal, M Veerappa Moily, Prithviraj Chavan, P J Kurian, Ajay Singh, Renuka Chaudhary, and Milind Deora too had reportedly signed the letter.
