CWC to meet on Sunday to approve schedule for election of Congress president

Congress had announced in October last year that the election of the new party president will be held between August 21 and September 20 this year.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will meet on August 28, 2022 to approve the schedule of dates for the election of the next party president.

This comes in the backdrop of party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad's shock resignation on August 26, 2022.

Sources said besides giving approval to the polls schedule, the members of the CWC, the party's highest decision-making body, could also express confidence in the leadership provided by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

This would be significant in the context of Mr. Azad's resignation and criticism of the leadership.

Mr. Azad ended his five-decade association with the party and lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for "demolishing its entire consultative mechanism". 

The Congress, dealing with the fallout of a series of high profile exits, including that of Kapil Sibal and Ashwani Kumar, attempted to deflect the latest blow by alleging that Azad's DNA had been "Modi-fied" and linking his resignation to the end of his Rajya Sabha tenure.

Ahead of the CWC meeting, to be held virtually at 3:30 p.m. with Sonia Gandhi presiding over it, party sources had said the process of the election of the president will be delayed by a few weeks, not more than that, and the party should have a full-time president in October.