Sonia Gandhi to continue as interim Congress president till process for electing new chief completes
Aug 09, 2020
By Siddharth Sharma
New Delhi [India], Aug 9 : The Congress on Sunday said that Sonia Gandhi will continue to remain as the party's interim president beyond August 10 and will continue to occupy the post till the procedure to elect a new president is completed.
"Sonia Gandhi Ji is the president, she will continue till such time as a proper procedure is implemented and it will be implemented in the not too distant future," Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters at a press conference held through video conferencing today.
The senior leader said that "This is very clear that neither politics nor political parties permit or tolerate a vacuum. Just like nature abhors a vacuum, political parties cannot function in a vacuum. It is true that the tenure is expiring tomorrow. There is a laid down procedure in the party constitution for elections. As you know, it goes through the CWC etc," party leader
Singhvi's comment is noteworthy as it is the first official one from the party on the issue.
He further said, "Her tenure is coming to an end. There's a proper procedure for it which is carried out through the Congress Working Committee (CWC) carries out. It will be done in the near future and you will have a result. Its written in the Congress' constitution, we are bound to do it and it's being done."
According to sources, Sonia's tenure is likely to be extended and the party will inform the Election Commission regarding the same. Earlier in a meeting with Sonia, several MPs from Lok and Rajya Sabha had raised the demand for Rahul Gandhi's return to the post of party President.
However, Rahul Gandhi has maintained a silence on the issue.
According to top sources, Rahul is not ready to take on the role although he is active in the party's affairs.
Rahul had resigned from the post after the poll debacle in 2019 general elections, taking full responsibility for Congress' defeat.
Rahul had also stated that the party's president shouldn't be from the Gandhi family but party leaders and workers failed to find a leader as his successor following which Sonia was elected to the post by the CWC.
