On Sunday, the Pradesh Congress Committees (PCCs) of Gujarat and Chhattisgarh joined Rajasthan in passing a resolution calling for former Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take back the reins of the party. Mr. Gandhi is currently in Kerala helming the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo’ Yatra.
In Gujarat, the resolution was moved by State party chief Jagdish Thakor at the PCC executive meeting and all members supported it. “In one voice, we have moved a resolution that Rahulji must take over as party chief and lead the party to the next Lok Sabha election,” a party leader from the poll-bound Gujarat said.
Earlier, in Chhattisgarh — the only other State besides Rajasthan where the party is in power — Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel moved the resolution in Raipur on Sunday which was supported by all the delegates. With very little time left for the party’s presidential polls, Mr. Baghel said, “Two states have passed these resolutions. If this proposal comes from other States too, then Rahulji should rethink this matter”.
In response to a question on how such resolutions should be viewed in light of Mr. Gandhi repeatedly expressing reluctance to return to the post, the party’s State election officer, Husain Dalwai, said it was the will of the party workers. For some like AICC’s Chhattisgarh in-charge P.L. Punia, the resolutions were an occasion to reiterate their loyalty to the Gandhi family. Mr. Punia said the party could not “pick any one from the street and make them the president”.
As many as 310 delegates were present at the Chhattisgarh meeting, while the Gujarat Congress did not disclose the number.
Both the PCCs also passed resolutions authorising Congress president Sonia Gandhi to reshuffle the State units as part of the exercise to overhaul the party’s structure nationally. A similar resolution was passed in Madhya Pradesh too on Saturday. However, the M.P. PCC did not pass a resolution calling for Mr. Gandhi’s return at the helm.
Meanwhile, a group of young Congress leaders have appealed to the presidential candidates to “undertake a public pledge to involve party members from block committees up to the CWC and implement the Udaipur Declaration in its entirety within the first 100 days of assuming office”. The initial signatories to the campaign include K. Raju, Praveen Chakravarty, Meenakshi Natarajan, Prakash Joshi, Sachin Rao, Jothimani and Harshwardhan Sapkal.
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