NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi, who was authorised by the party to reconstitute the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision making body, is expected to take a call soon. Party insiders said the issue has been pending for the past two months. Rahul had dissolved the CWC in February and wanted to hold elections for half of the 24 members as part of his attempts to democratise the party. Sources said in March, Rahul was advised against pushing for elections in the CWC to avoid creating fissures within the party and distracting the key players ahead of the Karnataka Assembly polls.
With elections in the southern state over, sources said the Congress chief may take a final view on the decision making body before going for Kailash Mansarovar Yatra. Talking about the CWC’s relevance, sources cited a recent episode when opinion in the party was sharply divided over the move to impeach Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. “A unanimous view should have been firmed up in the CWC rather than informal meetings and voices at various levels, giving an impression that the Congress was struggling with the issue,” said a party insider.
Other matters that need to be deliberated by the CWC are alliances for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and other burning issues like job and farm crisis, internal security, economy and foreign policy.Though the party constitution mandates that 12 members in the CWC should be elected, since 2010, then Congress chief Sonia Gandhi had been nominating all the members. Rahul wanted to change this and bring in more young faces, but his plans found stiff resistance from the seniors in the party. The sources said it would be difficult for Rahul to ignore the role of seniors, who have been trouble shooting in the hours of crisis.