NEW DELHI: Amid speculations about the Congress amending its constitution to appoint working presidents or vice-presidents, the party’s senior leadership on Wednesday emphasised upon Rahul's continuation of as chief.
“Rahulji was, is and will remain the Congress president,” Congress communication department chief Randeep Singh Surjewala said after a meeting of the party’s core committee, which was dissolved.
A K Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Mallikarjun Kharge, Anand Sharma, apart from Surjewala, were part of the nine-member Congress Core Committee set up for the Lok Sabha elections.
The leaders also deliberated upon other key issues, including expediting organisational overhaul, focusing on poll-bound states, settling infighting in the state units and formulating the strategy for the Lok Sabha starting June 17.
Rahul and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi were not part of the meeting. “Decision related to party leaders in Parliament will be taken by Sonia Gandhi later this week. She is also expected to convene a meeting of other parties to discuss the joint strategy of the opposition in the Lok Sabha,” said a source.
Sources said the senior leaders were concerned over the infighting and factionalism in state units and discussed that these needed to be settled soon keeping in mind the upcoming Assembly polls in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Haryana and J&K. “Discussion also happened on the constitution of co-ordination committees for poll-bound states,” said a leader.