Two weeks after around two dozen Indian National Congress leaders wrote to the party’s interim chief Sonia Gandhi seeking the party’s revival, the 73-year-old veteran leader has offered to step down at the party meeting scheduled on August 24, reports suggest.
Senior Congress leaders including former chief ministers, sitting members of parliament (MP) and former union ministers, have written a letter to Sonia Gandhi, who had taken over as the interim president after her son and then President Rahul Gandhi resigned from the top position following the party’s debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, asking for changes in the party, arguing that the party’s revival is “a national imperative,” reported The Indian Express.
A report by Hindustan Times said that Sonia, in her response to the letter, reportedly said that ‘all the leaders should get together and find a new chief as she does not want to carry out the responsibilities any further.’
The letter sent a fortnight ago, reportedly seeks a full-time and effective leadership for the party which is “active and visible on the ground.
The letter points out that the party is losing the confidence of the youth, touching upon the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to state that the youth of the country voted for Narendra Modi’.
Referring to the political situation in the country, the top Congress leadership has written that the revival of the party is necessary for democracy. The letter, according to reports, added that party faces this situation when the ‘country is facing its “gravest” social, economic and political challenges.
The letter enlists the hardships due to the pandemic, India-China border standoff, “communal and divisive agenda of the BJP”, economic slowdown, unemployment, and has asked for a slew of changes within the party structure which includes decentralization of power, empowerment of the state units, the constitution of a central parliamentary board, elections to Congress organizations at all levels among others.
The letter has also mentioned that elections should be held at all levels to select CWC members, which is scheduled to meet on Monday, August 24, where the leadership is likely to discuss the issues raised in the letter.
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