Sonia Gandhi to be interim Congress chief, confirms Azad

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) met for the second time on Saturday evening to take a final call on the new party president in which it was confirmed that Sonia Gandhi will become the Congress President for now. The resignation of Rahul Gandhi from the top post has also been formally accepted.

As the CWC members met at around 9 pm at the AICC headquarters here, Rahul Gandhi did not initially join the leaders, but sources said he was expected to attend the meeting later.

During the wider consultation process involving state PCC chiefs, Congress legislature party leaders, AICC secretaries and party MPs, only a few suggested other names while a majority of them said the party will face desertions if Rahul Gandhi does not remain the leader. Some even told Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to prevail upon Rahul to reconsider his May 25 resignation, the sources said.

The party's top decision-making body will discuss reports of five groups, formed earlier in the day, to scrutinise names of potential successor to Rahul Gandhi.

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi recused themselves from the consultation process saying they they cannot be part of it as they have been Congress presidents in the past and would not like the opinion of the party leaders to be influenced in any manner.

"There is process of consultation and naturally Rahul ji and myself, we cannot be part of that consultation," Sonia Gandhi told reporters.

Asked how their names were in the sub-groups for consultations, she said, "That's obviously a mistake, because we cannot be in that."

At 11 am, the Congress' top brass, including ex-prime minister Manmohan Singh, party general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge and P Chidambaram, went into a huddle at the All India Congress Committee headquarters here.

The CWC decided to have consultations with leaders from across the country and it was divided into five groups for different regions -- northeast, east, north, west and south.

The CWC group for the northeast region included top party leaders such as Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni and former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat. The group for eastern region included AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, ex-Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi and former Union minister Kumari Selja.

The northern region group included Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jyotiraditya Scindia and P Chidambaram. The western region group was has leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, A K Antony and Motilal Vora.

The group for the southern region included Manmohan Singh, Anand Sharma and Mukul Wasnik.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his deputy Sachin Pilot, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and Puducherry CM V Narayanasamy were also part of the consultation process.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said several leaders who could not make it to New Delhi have been consulted over phone.

The party has also been grappling with a series of desertions by leaders in Karnataka and Maharashtra, the latest being that by ex-Congress Rajya Sabha chief whip Bhubaneswar Kalita and MP Sanjay Singh.

With elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Haryana coming up, the party is hoping to resolve the leadership issue quickly and move forward.