Scindia among frontrunners for Congress president post
Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday held a series of meetings with party leaders, including his sister Priyanka Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot, amid his insistence on quitting the top post over the Congress debacle in the Lok Sabha polls.
While these meetings were held at intervals, most of the day the Gandhi scion remained closeted with senior leader Ahmed Patel, considered to be the chief strategist of the grand old party for over 15 years now.
Rahul met Pilot and Gehlot separately in the presence of Priyanka during these meetings. Party general secretary KC Venugopal and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala too held discussion with the Congress chief, who is adamant on having a non-Gandhi installed as the party head.
Rahul had cancelled all meetings on Monday and had become incommunicado, even though he visited a local hotel in the evening, the sources said.
While names like Jyotiraditya Scindia are doing the rounds for the top post, one of the formulas making rounds is to have Rahul as the leader of the party in the Lok Sabha if he steps down as the party chief. In the last Lok Sabha, senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge was the leader of the Congress. But he has lost the Lok Sabha election.
After its electoral debacle, the Congress is undergoing acute internal turmoil while it struggles to safeguard its Governments in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh with reports suggesting the BJP may try to wrest power in these three States.
Not only this, the Congress leadership may also do a complete overhaul of its media and communications department. Currently the team is led by Surjewala.
In addition to Congressmen, DMK chief MK Stalin and RJD chief Lalu Prasad have appealed to Rahul not to step down as party chief. Stalin said Rahul has won the hearts of the people though his party lost the elections, while Lalu termed Rahul’s offer to quit as “suicidal”, asserting it would amount to “falling into the BJP’s trap”. Stalin called up Rahul and “appealed to him to give up the idea of resigning as party president”.
“Any new president of the Congress would be considered a puppet of Rahul and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the perception would continue till the next general election,” Lalu said.
Delhi Congress chief Sheila Dikshit, a former Chief Minister, appealed to Rahul Gandhi to withdraw his decision, saying the party has bounced back in the past from challenging circumstances to emerge triumphant. Another Congress leader Pramod Tiwari, after meeting Rahul said, “Instead of resigning, he should seek resignations of leaders at all levels and restructure the party.”
Adding to the voices in the Opposition UPA against Rahul Gandhi’s offer to resign, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth said the Congress chief should stay on as he was a “youngster” and perhaps not got the cooperation of senior party leaders.
