The Congress Working Committee will meet on Sunday, its first meeting after the exit of Ghulam Nabi Azad, who was one of the longest-serving general secretaries of the party.
The online meeting that will be chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi is expected to discuss the schedule for the upcoming internal elections of the party.
The chair of the Congress president has been with the Gandhi family uninterrupted for 24 years, since Ms. Gandhi took in 1998. Rahul Gandhi served a two-year term from December 2017 to July 2019.
The CWC is meeting to endorse the election schedule. The election of Congress president that was to end by September 20 is likely to be delayed by a few weeks with the party focused on the Bharat Jodo Yatra and some State units not completing the formalities.
Mr. Azad, in his resignation letter, had criticised Mr. Gandhi’s “immaturity” and called the election process a farce and an attempt to “foist” a non-serious individual at the helm of the party.
All three Gandhi-family members — Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra — are expected to join the online meeting from abroad.
According to sources, Congress leader Anand Sharma, another member of the G-23, will also be in attendance.
Amid speculation that Mr. Sharma will follow in the footsteps of Mr. Azad, the Congress leader said that he had no such plans and would remain with the party.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, hours after Mr. Azad’s resignation was made public, Mr. Sharma had said, that the resignation was avoidable if the party had abided by the decisions arrived at at a meeting on December 20, 2020. The Gandhi family, reaching out to the dissenting group, the G-23, which had written a letter seeking reforms in the party, had listened to their suggestions.
Lok Sabha MP from Punjab Manish Tewari on Saturday reiterated Mr. Sharma’s comments. He said, “A crack seems to have appeared in coordination between India and Congress that existed since 1885. A self-introspection was needed. I feel that had the consensus of the meeting at Sonia Gandhi’s residence on 20th December 2020 been executed, this situation wouldn’t have arrived.”
Calling Mr. Azad’s resignation unfortunate and regrettable, he added, “I don’t want to go into the merit of Mr. Azad’s letter. But it is strange that people who don’t have the capacity to fight even a ward election, were chaprasis of Congress leaders are giving gyan (wisdom) about the party. It is laughable for want of a better word.”
Mr. Tewari refused to comment on speculation about his own impending exit.
The Gandhi family loyalists are calling the claims made by Mr. Azad in his resignation letter “entirely baseless”. Mr. Azad called Ms. Gandhi a “nominal figurehead” alleging that all important decisions were being taken by Mr. Gandhi “or rather worse his security guards and PAs”.
A CWC member close to the family said, “To say that Congress president can be remote-controlled by anyone is blatantly untrue. She is extremely decisive and even Rahul Gandhi can not get his way around her till he is able to convince her with sound reasons.”
Sentiments such as this are expected to play out in the meeting on Sunday.
