Chorus for Rahul Gandhi as Congress president grows louder as CWC meets

The chorus for making Rahul Gandhi Congress president again grew louder on Sunday as several leaders and workers voiced support for him to take on the mantle of party chief.

Ahead of a crucial Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said no one was taking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Gandhi does and was fighting resolutely.

"The prime minister has to start his speech after targeting Rahul Gandhi, you can understand what this means," Gehlot said.

He accused the BJP of winning the recent round of assembly polls by indulging in polarisation. However, he accepted that the Congress lost in Punjab due to infighting.

Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar also backed the idea to make Gandhi the party chief.

"As I have said it earlier as well, Sh. Rahul Gandhi should take up the Congress presidency in a full time role immediately. This is the wish of millions of Congress workers like me," he tweeted.

Congress workers from around Delhi, who converged near the party office, were not allowed to enter the AICC headquarter as traffic was held up and the road outside the party office was barricaded by the police.

A group led by Delhi Congress leaders, including Alka Lamba, voiced support for Gandhi to lead the party and raised slogans in his and Congress general secretary Priyaka Gandhi Vadra's favour.

Youth Congress chief Srinivas B V said the Gandhi family is the thread that binds together not only the Congress but all sections of the country and it is not dependent on any electoral victory or defeat.

Rahul Gandhi had resigned as Congress president after the party suffered its second consecutive defeat in general elections in 2019. Sonia Gandhi, who took over the reins of the party again as interim president, had also offered to quit in August 2020 after strong criticism by a section of leaders, referred to as G-23, but the CWC had urged her to continue.