Three state Congress units urge Rahul to take over as party chief

Three state units of the Congress on Monday urged party vice president Rahul Gandhi to take over the leadership of the party.

The Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee, the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee and the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee adopted resolutions requesting Rahul to take charge as the party president.

The JKPCC also lauded the role of incumbent chief Sonia Gandhi and authorised her to finalise the name of the president of the state party unit, its spokesman Ravinder Sharma said.

He said a meeting of newly elected PCC delegates from the Jammu province was held at the party headquarters here under the chairmanship of Pradesh Returning Officer and Rajya Sabha MP Hussain Dalwai.

"The meeting unanimously lauded the role and leadership of Rahul who is fighting the forces of hatred and leading the party as it faces the most difficult challenges," Sharma said.

He said the speakers were unanimous in their demand that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi take over the leadership of the party.

The meeting was attended by APROs Moqsood Mirza, Deepak Rathode, PCC President G A Mir and all senior functionaries, MLAs and MLCs and other PCC delegates from all districts and parts of Jammu province.

"The entire cadre is behind his leadership and the younger leadership has great desire that he should lead the party," Sharma said.

He said a resolution moved by party leader Thakur Hari Singh and seconded by all senior leaders was unanimously adopted to authorise Congress president to finalise the list of AICC members and president of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee.

The speakers praised the leadership of Sonia who led the party with great dynamism and vision, he said.

"She always took the right decision in the interests of the country and party at all crucial times. They lauded her selfless services and dynamic leadership," Sharma said.

The GPCC, which met the first time since elections were held for various posts under it recently, also adopted a resolution empowering Sonia Gandhi to decide new state party unit chief as well as All India Congress Committee members from the state.

Shantaram Naik is the incumbent president of the Goa Congress.

"The newly-elected PCC has resolved to request Rahul Gandhi to take over as the party president," Congress Pradesh Returning Officer R Dhruvanarayan told reporters.

Dhruvanarayan said no names for the post of state unit president were discussed at the GPCC meeting.

He said the party high command is expected to take the decision on the nomination of new GPCC chief in the fortnight.

Many leaders in Congress feel Rahul Gandhi's elevation as the party president is long overdue.

Senior leader Sachin Pilot had recently said the party vice-president may take over as the Congress president shortly after Diwali.

The MPCC also adopted a resolution to elevate Rahul to the post of party president.

Newly-appointed AICC general secretary in-charge of Madhya Pradesh Deepak Babaria and other party leaders attended the meeting, wherein the committee also passed another resolution empowering Sonia to decide the new chief of the state party unit and members of the AICC from the state.

Arun Yadav is currently the MPCC chief, and there are speculations that the party's leadership might shortly replace him with Guna MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, and project him (Scindia) as the chief ministerial candidate for 2018 end state assembly polls.

"Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Ajay Singh put forth the proposal for Rahul's elevation, while Congress MLA Rajendra Singh tabled the another one requesting Soniaji to take a call on the state leadership and AICC members from the state," state Congress spokesman Pankaj Chaturvedi said.

On Saturday, the newly-elected members of the Delhi unit of the Congress unanimously adopted a resolution urging Rahul to take over as the party's president.