Members of the Congress Working Committee on Monday extended unanimous support to have Rahul Gandhi made the party president. At a CWC meeting, which the Congress vice president chaired for the first time, former defence minister AK Antony said it was the "right time for Rahul Gandhi to take charge as the president of the Congress party", and other committee members had agreed, according to ANI.

"It's high time the Congress mobilises all its forces to fight against the dictatorial rule of the [Narendra] Modi government," Antony said. "It was the first time that this sentiment was strongly and unanimously expressed. The final decision has to be that of the president [Sonia Gandhi].

However, the news agency had earlier quoted unnamed officials as saying that Sonia Gandhi will continue as the party president. She had to miss the CWC meeting because of poor health.

According to senior party leader RS Surjewala, Rahul Gandhi had said at the meeting that "he will be ready to take up any challenge", regardless of what the party and its working committee decide.

"Rahul Gandhiji said...whatever the party and its workers decide, he will be ready to take up that role," he said, adding that they had passed a resolution at the meeting, requesting the Centre to take strict action against perpetrators behind the strike at Uri and other militant attacks.

Earlier at the meeting in Delhi, the Congress vice president had said that the current regime under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was obsessed with power and stifling dissent. "The government tries to silence all those who disagree with it," he had said. "Hiding behind the cloak of national security, civil society is being intimidated for asking questions... Asking questions is what discomforts this government, for they have no answers, we must expose the government's failures in the upcoming Parliament session."

Besides Antony, there were a number of other senior Congress leaders present at the meeting, including Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Janardan Dwivedi, Ahmed Patel and Ambika Soni.