Congress Working Committee meet underway at Sonia Gandhi's residence; presidential poll, Rahul's elevation top agenda

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will on Tuesday chair a meeting of party's Congress Working Committee during which Rahul Gandhi's elevation to party president's post is most likely to come up.

New Delhi: A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is currently underway at party president Sonia Gandhi's residence.

The CWC meeting which is being chaired by Sonia Gandhi is likely to discuss Rahul Gandhi's possible elevation to party president's post later this year.

The CWC meet, which is being held after a gap of seven months, is also expected to ratify the timeline for the organisational elections due to be held later this year.

Among other issues, the CWC is likely to discuss the upcoming presidential election, current political situation, opposition unity, vendetta politics by the Narendra Modi Government, current beef controversy and Kashmir's deteriorating situation.

Today's closed-door CWC meeting will be held at Sonia Gandhi's residence which comes against the backdrop of attempts by the Congress to unite opposition parties ahead of the presidential election next month and put together a broad coalition of opposition parties ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to take on the BJP.

Sonia Gandhi had skipped the last meeting which was chaired by her son and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

The CWC had then made a strong pitch for appointing Rahul Gandhi as Congress chief in order to revive the fortunes of the party.

At the November 7 meeting, all members, including former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and senior leader A K Antony, had made a strong pitch for Rahul Gandhi to take over the reins of the party. 

This is the top panel's first meeting after the Congress was washed out in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the assembly elections. Apart from another round of introspection, Gandhi had concluded that structural and organisational changes were required to revive the party.

The party has to complete internal elections by this year-end. 

Since the CWC does have powers to appoint party chief, Rahul Gandhi is keen on getting appointed as Congress chief democratically.