The Congress Working Committee, the party’s highest decision-making body, will hold a meeting on Sunday afternoon to finalise the exact schedule for the election of the next party chief.

“Congress President Sonia Gandhi will preside over the CWC meeting,” party leader KC Venugopal wrote in a tweet.

In July 2019, Rahul Gandhi had resigned as the Congress chief following the party’s poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections. The Congress had won only only 52 of 543 parliamentary seats in the polls.

Since Rahul Gandhi’s resignation, Sonia Gandhi has acted the interim chief of the party. In August 2020, a group of 23 Congress leaders, known as G-23, had written to her to press for a complete revamp of the party’s organisation. The G-23 leaders have repeatedly said that the party needs an active president.

Over a year later in October, Sonia Gandhi had said she was a “full-time and hands-on Congress president”. However, she had also confirmed that the elections for the new chief would be held. The party had then announced that the election to pick a new Congress president would be held between August 21 and September 20 this year.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Anand Sharma said that it was Rahul Gandhi who had chosen to resign from the top post and was not asked to do so by the party members, reported ANI.

“It is important that the Nehru-Gandhi family remains integral,” Sharma said. “Congress does require inclusive and collective thinking and approach.”

Several Congress leaders want Gandhi to become the party chief again.

On Tuesday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had said that Gandhi should accept the position of party president.

The chief minister had said that around 250 members of the All India Congress Committee want Gandhi to take back the reins of the party. “When there is a one-sided opinion about him, then I feel he should accept,” he added.

Gehlot’s remark came two days after reports claimed that Gandhi has refused to contest the election to elect the next Congress president. Incumbent Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also expressed her desire not to continue in the post citing health reasons.

In January last year, the Delhi unit of the Congress had passed a resolution to make Rahul Gandhi the president of the party with immediate effect. A month before that, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala had said that the party would soon begin the process to elect a new president and that 99.9% of the members wanted Rahul Gandhi to be chosen.

In August 2020, Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor had said that the Congress should hold elections for choosing the party president if Rahul Gandhi does not wish to take over as the outfit’s chief.