Appoint Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as Congress chief, says former union minister Sriprakash Jaiswal

Amid the ongoing struggle to find a new Congress president, senior party leader and former union minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Thursday said that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra should be made chief of the grand old party. “If Priyanka can be given the responsibility of Uttar Pradesh, she can be made national president too… there’s no harm in it,” Jaiswal said.

Priyanka was made the in charge of eastern Uttar Pradesh ahead of Lok Sabha Elections but she failed to lift the grand old party from the abyss of political irrelevance in the state. 

Rahul Gandhi, MP from Wayanad in Kerala, had resigned from the post of president following Lok Sabha Elections 2019 drubbing. Gandhi had suggested that the Congress Working Committee (CWC) be entrusted with the task of finding a new party president and it would not be correct for him to select his successor.

Meanwhile, facing a leadership crisis after Gandhi’s resignation, top party leaders went into a huddle to discuss the way forward, but there was no decision when the Congress Working Committee would meet to decide on his successor.    

Senior leaders Motilal Vora, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Anand Sharma met at the office of the Leader of Opposition at the Parliament complex and deliberated on the future course of action, sources said.

The next step would be to convene a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the highest decision-making body of the party, and it might happen as early as next week, but there is no official confirmation, they said.

The various options before the CWC would be to either have an interim Congress president till the time a regular appointment is made through the election, nominate a new Congress chief or form a presidium that could run the party till the time regular election to the top post is made.

Probable candidates for the post of Congress president include Motilal Vora, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ashok Gehlot and Mukul Wasnik.