Sonia ji unwell, Rahul Gandhi should take over as Congress chief: Siddaramaiah as party preps up for CWC meet

Bengaluru, Oct 11: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly Siddaramaiah said that Rahul Gandhi should take over as the Congress President as Sonia Gandhi is not keeping well.

"I have suggested to Rahul ji that he should become the president of the All India Congress Committee," the PTI quotes Siddaramaiah as saying on the sidelines of a function in Bengaluru.

The ex-Karnataka Chief Minister added, "It is not that Sonia ji is incapable of discharging her duties of the president. Sonia ji is not keeping good health. That is why I suggested Rahul ji to take over as early as possible," he added.

Sonia Gandhi is the interim president of the AICC and she had replaced Rahul Gandhi in 2019 following the Congress' poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections.

Siddaramiah's statement comes when the party is planning to have its Congress Working Committee (CWC), the top decision-making body in the party, meeting even as a group of 23 senior Congress leaders, including Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad have been demanding for organisational overhaul.

The meeting is likely to be held this week.

Azad, along with 22 other leaders, had written to Congress president demanding a slew of organisational reforms and elections to all party posts, last year. A meeting was held later wherein it was decided that the party would hold elections for the new Congress president by June, but it could not happen due to the pandemic.

The rebels are pressing for reforms in the party in order to strengthen the organisation to take on the BJP and Narendra Modi.