The Delhi unit of the All India Congress Committee on Saturday passed a resolution asking Rahul Gandhi to take over as president of the party, ANI reported. The Delhi Congress is the first committee to pass such a resolution.

On October 1, Congress leader from Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot, had said Gandhi may take over as president soon after Diwali. The general sentiment in the Congress is that it is time for Gandhi to take charge and lead from the front, Pilot had said.

In September, another Congress leader and former Union minister M Veerappa Moily had said Gandhi taking over would be a game-changer for the Congress, as he has a “new approach and new method”. He had said Gandhi would like to emerge as the party president through an internal election process.

The Congress vice president himself had indicated in September that he was ready to take on the responsibility. During his address at the University of California in Berkley on September 12, he had brushed off a remark about being a dynast and said he was “absolutely ready” to take up an executive responsibility if the party asked him to do so.

His mother Sonia Gandhi has been the party’s longest-serving president.

On October 3, the Central Election Authority of the Congress had decided to open the process to file nomination papers for the Congress president’s post tentatively from October 10, The Economic Times reported.