Sonia Gandhi calls meeting of former party chiefs of Delhi

With just five months left for the Assembly elections in the national capital, Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of former city unit chiefs on Thursday evening to discuss the leadership issue as the party has been left headless after the death of former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, party sources said.

A Congress source told IANS, "The four former Delhi Congress chiefs, Arvinder Singh Lovely, Ajay Maken, Jaiprakash Agarwal and Subhash Chopra have been asked to attend the meeting with Soniaji at her residence at 6.15 p.m."

He said that the Congress Chief is likely to discuss the issue of the new Delhi unit chief, which post has been lying vacant since July 20 after the death of Dikshit.

The source pointed out that discussions over the new city in-charge will also be held in the meeting as P.C. Chacko has urged the senior leadership to relieve him of his duties.

Last week, Chacko along with all the 14 district presidents had met Sonia Gandhi at her residence. Even former Delhi Minister Lovely along with senior party leader A.K. Walia had met Sonia Gandhi to discuss the leadership issue.

On Tuesday, disgruntled AAP MLA from Chandni Chowk Alka Lamba also met Sonia Gandhi leading to speculation that she might join the grand old party ahead of the Assembly elections.

The Congress, which is eyeing a comeback in the national capital, which it had ruled for three consecutive terms from 1998 to 2013 under Dikshit, is still unable to put its house in order. On the other hand, the BJP has already launched its election campaign across the city.

Delhi BJP unit chief Manoj Tiwari, who represents the northeast Delhi parliamentary constituency and senior BJP leader Vijay Goel have been holding a series of programmes in Delhi in the run up to the Assembly elections, which is due early next year.

The Congress had lost the 2013 elections to the Aam Aadmi Party and was completely wiped out in the 2015 Assembly elections when the AAP won 67 out of the 70 seats. The BJP had won three seats.