Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi recuse themselves from CWC meet

Congress President Rahul Gandhi with senior party leader Sonia Gandhi during Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, at AICC HQ in New Delhi, Saturday, Aug 10, 2019.

New Delhi: UPA chief Sonia Gandhi and outgoing party head Rahul Gandhi left the Congress Working Committee meeting midway, saying they couldn't be part of the process of consultations to find its next president. "We cannot be part of this process," Sonia Gandhi said after she recused herself from the deliberations.

After Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi too left saying that he has to take stock of his parliamentary constituency Wayanad in Kerala, which is currently ravaged by heavy rains. Sonia Gandhi said her name was included by default in the region-wise committees.

All the CWC members have been assigned the task of holding consultations with state unit chiefs, legislative party leaders and heads of frontal organisations across the country. They will hold these consultations in groups.

The CWC has decided to have consultations with leaders from across the country and the party's top decision-making body then was divided into five groups for different regions -- northeast, east, north, west and south. While the CWC group for the northeast region will be led by Arun Yadav, it will include top party leaders like Ambika Soni and Ahmed Patel. The group for the eastern region will be led by Sushmita Dev and will include Sonia Gandhi and KC Venugopal. The northern region group will be led by Rajni Patil and will include Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and P Chidambaram. The western region group will be led by Gaurav Gogoi and will have Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ghulam Nabi Azad, AK Antony and Motilal Vora. The group for the southern region will be headed by Rajiv Satav and will include Manmohan Singh, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik as its members.

Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary after Congress Working Committee(CWC) meeting ends said that they will meet again at 8.30 pm, it (name of new party chief) is expected to be finalised by 9 pm today itself.

The party is hoping to resolve the leadership issue and move forward quickly with assembly elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana coming up.

Rahul Gandhi, while resigning as the party president on May 25, had asked the CWC to elect a president from outside his family. His sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is a Congress general secretary.

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