New Delhi, Aug 24 (uni) A meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision making body in the party, began on Monday to deliberate on the issue of change in leadership in the party and the current political situation in the country.

Being chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and beingattendedbyseniorleadersoftheparty, includingformerPrimeMinisterManmohan Singh, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several others, , the meeting of the CWC comes amid an increasing demand within the party for an overhaul in the organizational set up as the party gets ready to take on the Narendra Modi government on various issues like a massive downslide in the economy, rising unemployment, constantly increasing number of Covid cases, the longstanding standoff with China on the border and other issues.

In a recent letter to the Congress president, a group of party leaders sought a complete overhaul of the organisation.

Sources said that responding to the letter, Mrs Gandhi on Sunday expressed her desire to quit as Party chief and asked party leaders to get together to select a new party chief.

The sources said that Mrs Gandhi said she does not want to carry out the responsibilities of party chief any further and asked party leaders to get together to select a new party chief.

In their letter to Mrs Gandhi, 23 senior leaders of the Congress, including former Chief Ministers, many Congress Working Committee members, sitting MPs, and several former Union Ministers, had called for sweeping changes, from top to bottom.

In the letter, the party leaders expressed concern on the erosion of the support base of the party.

Sources said that the signatories to the letter include Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Union Ministers Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor; MP Vivek Tankha; 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; former PCC chiefs Raj Babbar (UP), Arvinder Singh Lovely (Delhi) and Kaul Singh Thakur (Himachal); current Bihar campaign chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh, former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma; former Delhi Speaker Yoganand Shastri and former MP Sandeep Dixit.

Their letter calls for a sweeping range of reforms, decentralisation of power, empowerment of state units, elections to the Congress organisation at all levels, from the block to the CWC and the urgent constitution of a Central parliamentary board.

The leaders, it is learnt, have pointed out that the “uncertainty” over the leadership and the “drift” in the party had demoralised workers and weakened the party. Importantly, they are learnt to have said that the CWC is not “effectively guiding” the party anymore in mobilising public opinion against the BJP government.

Viewed in this light, the predominant focus in the CWC meeting is likely to be on the issue of change in leadership of the party.

Notwithstanding her offer to resign, several senior leaders of the party have pitched for the continuance of Mrs Gandhi as party chief.

Senior Party leader Ashok Gehlot, however, termdd the letter by the party leaders as unfortunate and said that he believes Sonia Gandhi should continue to lead the party at this crucial juncture

'News of 23 senior most Congress leaders writing letter to Hon’ble CP is unbelievable and if it is true - it’s very unfortunate was no need to go in media I strongly believe that Hon’ble CP Sonia Gandhi ji should continue to lead the party at this crucial juncture where the fight is to save the ethos of our Democracy. She has always taken challenges head on. But if she has made up her mind -I believe Rahul Gandhi should come ahead and be the Congress President as country faces the biggest challenge to save our Constitution -Democracy,'Gehlot said.

Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh has also backed mrs Gandhi as party chief.

On 10 August, Mrs Gandhi completed one year as interim Congress chief .

Congress had then said that she would continue till the process for electing the party president gets implemented.

In the last few months, there has been a renewed demand from several quarters for bringing back Rahul Gandhi as the Congress chief given the fact that he has , in the last one year, constantly taken on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP government at the centre on various issues like a massive downturn in the economy, rising unemployment, mismanagement of the Covid crisis, the failure of the Modi government to prevent Chinese intrusion in the Indian territory and alleged irregularities in the deal for Rafale fighter aircrafts.

Though, an year ago, Rahul Gandhi had insisted that no member of the Gandhi family would assume the post of party chief, many in the party feel that in the current situation, it is only a young leader like Rahul Gandhi who can take on the Modi Government given the fact that he has relentlessly attacked the PM and the BJP on various issues. The renewed pitch for Rahul as party chief comes after the significant role played by him in resolving the longstanding crisis faced by the Congress Party in Rajasthan after a meeting with party rebel Sachin Pilot.

Sources said that the meeting of the CWC is likely to witness a heated discussion on the issue of an overhaul of the national leadership and need for a more robust strategy to take on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government.

Significantly, Mr Gandhi resigned from the post of President taking responsibility for the party's defeat in the 2019 general election and after that, his mother Sonia Gandhi was re-elected as the interim President. Now the demand to make Mr Rahul Gandhi president again was gaining momentum. Several people, including party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, have said from the party platform that the demand to re-appoint Mr Gandhi to the post of president was in line with the sentiments of most party leaders.

The CWC meeting is also likely to discuss general issues like prevailing political circumstances, the Chinese border intrusion, unemployment in the country and economic situation in the country. Also, the Election Commission's new guidelines for conducting elections due to Covid-19 restriction could come up for discussion.

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