Congress Will Soon Start Procedure To Elect New Party President, Says Randeep Surjewala

99.9 percent of people including me want Rahul Gandhi to be elected as party president, Randeep Surjewala said. 

Written by: Victor Dasgupta Edited by: Victor Dasgupta

Updated: December 18, 2020, 5:56 PM IST

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https://www.india.com/news/india/congress-will-soon-start-procedure-to-elect-new-party-president-says-randeep-surjewala-4276141/ Copy

Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala (File Photo)

Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala on Friday said that the grand old party will soon start the procedure to elect a new party president. He further added that 99.9 percent of people including himself want Rahul Gandhi to take charge as the next president of the Congress. “Party will soon start the procedure to elect a new party president. Electoral College of Congress, AICC members, Congress workers & members will choose who’s best suited. 99.9 percent of people including me want Rahul Gandhi to be elected as party president,” Randeep Surjewala said.

Earlier, reports had suggested that Sonia Gandhi will meet party dissenters and other top leaders soon at her residence to discuss key issues concerning the party. According to the sources, the main agenda behind the meeting will include the party’s strategy in finalising the alliances and its plan for the poll-bound states of Assam, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the farmers agitation and the holding of the organisational elections.

During these deliberations over the weekend, she will also meet some of the prominent members of the “letter-writers group”, who had written to her demanding an overhaul of the party. Among them are Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and the deputy leader of the party in the Upper House, Anand Sharma.

There are talks that the Congress is likely to hold the AICC session in January to elect a new president, for which the party leadership will discuss and chalk out the plans.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, who lost power in the state after his bete noire Jyotiraditya Scindia quit the party and joined the BJP along with several MLAs, is also slated to meet the Congress president and discuss the fallout of the recently-concluded bypolls in the state, in which the Congress failed to make a mark.

This is the first time that Gandhi will be meeting Congress leaders face-to-face, months after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She has been holding virtual meetings ever since, including the crucial CWC meet in which party leaders discussed the “letter” by the group of 23 leaders demanding a change in the leadership and an overhaul of the party organisational structure.