NEW DELHI: Congress may not accede to the demand for immediate organisational elections for electing the new party chief and may opt for a fresh party membership drive, a decision that may mean Sonia Gandhi continuing at the helm.
The view in Congress could mean that the demand for G23 dissenters for internal polls, including for the CWC, may not find favour with the leadership. The CWC can, if it so chooses, name a party president who could be then ratified by the AICC.
As the Congress working committee meets on Saturday to discuss among other things the demand for internal polls as sought by G23, party insiders said the likelihood of it being accepted is thin.
Though Congress has been riven with calls for the election of the new chief for last one and a half years, the paradox is that the period has actually taken the party closer to the scheduled election calendar, end-2022. The last internal polls were held in 2017 December for a period of five years. Rahul quit the post midway in May 2019 after the Lok Sabha debacle.
The view in the party is that with five important assembly elections coming up in March 2022, internal poll process may not be feasible now. In contrast, the party can initiate the membership drive which is the required first step to polls which can be held later in the year.
Sources said the CWC may take a view on how to go about the next party election. In the absence of a clarity on the issue, speculations have been rife about individual Congress leaders been put up as interim arrangements, with names of Sachin Pilot and Kamal Nath floating around.
Senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad recently wrote a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi where he demanded internal polls as also a discussion on the state of the party affairs.
While the CWC is being watched for whether the discussions lead to a confrontation between the G23 and the loyalists, much of the meeting could revolve around the coming assembly elections and the political situation.
