The Congress Working Committee(CWC) at its meeting has once again underscored its intent to retain dynasty rule at all costs. In the argument match between two groups at the meeting, the leaders who sought all-new organisational re-structuring were eventually subdued by Gandhi loyalists like AK Antony who insisted that the top post is essentially meant for Sonia or Rahul. Led by Antony, Oomen Chandy and KC Venugopal too joined the chorus -all three of who are part of CWC.
The loyalists are now trying hard to persuade Rahul to show a change of heart than when in 2019 he resigned the president’s post, following a series of Congress defeats. On the other hand, with a long run of debacles, Rahul is still wary of occupying the chair and at the meeting, Sonia refuted the loyalists’ suggestion for Priyanka to enter the scene if Rahul’s refusal stuck. On her part, owing to health reasons, Sonia wishes to vacate the post of interim president - one that she assumed when Rahul resigned in 2019. And, the game now on is postpone organisational election for presidentship till Rahul makes a turn around.
In August of last year, the pro-dynasty loyalists were in for a shock when 23 party seniors wrote to Sonia seeking all-new makeover for Congress, leadership post included. At that time, the signatories themselves leaked the letter to media triggering wide controversy and eventually came to be threatened with party’s disciplinary action. However, when veterans like Gulam Nabhi adopted a confrontational style saying they were ready to face any kind of action, the pro-dynasty band slowly made a retreat. It dawned on Antony and his likes that, disciplinary action against veterans by an extremely-weakened Congress could be catastrophic.
Instead, Sonia rose to calm frayed nerves and held talks with the letters’ authors, assuring them of an organisational election that would not be put off for very long. In the CWC meeting held Friday, members largely expected to hear date for elections. However the in-charge for elections, Madudhan Mistri, came to be reportedly influenced by the pro-dynasty band and announced presidential polls for end of May. Assembly polls including that in Kerala were cited as a reason.
However, the other side saw it as a tactic for indefinite postponement of organisational elections and the result was mayhem with veterans including Gulam Nabhi blasting arguments.
