Published 18:26 IST, July 6th 2019
Next Congress president | MASSIVE crisis hits Gandhi-Vadras as top Cong leaders to hold war-room meeting without Sonia and Rahul Gandhi to discuss next party chief
Massive crisis has hit the Gandhi family as top leaders from the party will meet at 16 GRG, Delhi at 6 pm to discuss pressing issues with regards to the next Congress president and the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, as well as the worsening political Karnataka situation, the sources said.
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Massive crisis has hit the Gandhi family as top leaders from the party will meet at 15 GRG, New Delhi at 6 pm to discuss pressing issues with regards to the next Congress president and the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, as well as the worsening political Karnataka situation, the sources said.
Gandhi family members Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will not be present in the meeting, the sources said. As per sources, the meeting will be attended by seniormost leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, AK Antony, Mallikarjun Kharge, P Chidamabaram and Randeep Surjewala.
Trouble mounted on the party leadership after Rahul Gandhi resigned as its chief following the party's Lok Sabha drubbing. The old guard in the party wanted a senior party member who was a Gandhi-loyalist to be interim chief until the Gandhi family retained control, sources had informed. Following Saturday's newsbreak where Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh openly called for a younger leader to step up to take over the party's reins, the members have dropped the plan to have a stop-gap president, sources said.Now, the party is divided with senior leaders wanting a Gandhi loyalist to take over as party president. but sources have informed that many including three-four senior leader favour young blood such as Rajasthan CM Sachin Pilot or former Guna (Madhya Pradesh) MP Jyotiraditya Scindia to take over.
One of the agenda for the meeting on Saturday evening which will take place at the Congress war room would be to discuss who will take over the post of Congress president. They will also chalk out a plan to hold the CWC meeting, which as per sources, the Gandhi family was not willing to hold.
The meeting will also discuss the political situation in Karnataka where fourteen MLAs from the Congress-JD(S) government have, as per sources, quit. The coalition government owing to this issue could collapse and both JD(S) and Congress are grappling with the state of affairs.
17:57 IST, July 6th 2019