Cong president should be allowed to choose team: Gehlot

Ahead of its plenary session, when the Congress will elect a new working committee, senior leader Ashok Gehlot has said the new party chief should be given the authority to select his own team, as has been done in the past.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is the highest decision-making body of the party and takes all major decisions.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi had recently dissolved the previous working committee and set up a 34-member steering committee to work in its place instead.
The Congress president has been given the right to select his working committee in the 135-year history of the party, except on a few occasions. I think Rahul Gandhi should select his own new CWC, Gehlot told PTI.

He said even when elections were held to elect the CWC, members resigned after the polls to give full authority to the party chief to have his or her own new team.
What is the use of holding such elections, he asking, adding that the Congress tradition should continue.

In the past, elections were held for CWC members on five occasions in the Congress's 135-year-old history.
The Congress Plenary session will be held in New Delhi from March 16 to 18, paving the path for the party ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Party leaders would brainstorm on future strategies and alignments with other parties seeking to oust the BJP from power.

Under the Congress party's Constitution, the 25-member CWC, which is the party's highest decision-making body, has 12 elected members and 11 nominated members, besides the Congress president and the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party.