Reeling from the shock exit of Ghulam Nabi Azad – the party’s oldest and most prominent faces, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) will hold a crucial meeting today to decide the fate of the grand old party’s future.

The key agenda for the meeting by the CWC– the highest decision-making body of the Congress – would be to discuss the election of the Congress President and the poll schedule for the same. AICC General Secretary incharge KC Venugopal tweeted, “A virtual meeting of the CWC will be held on the 28th August, 2022 at 3:30 PM, to approve the exact schedule of dates for the election of the Congress President. Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi will preside over the CWC meeting.”

Sonia Gandhi is currently the working president of the Congress and is in the United States for medical treatment with both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi accompanying her.

The meeting comes at a crucial juncture for the party that is hanging by a thread after the rather public exit of Ghulam Nabi Azad who personally took on Rahul Gandhi in an explosive 5-page letter where he called Rahul Gandhi immature and attributed his leadership for the ‘demolition’ of the party that he has been part of for 50 years.

While Rahul Gandhi has maintained that he does not want to take up the top post, senior party members insist on trying to convince him to lead the party. “Rahul Gandhi would be pursued to return as Congress President as there is none in the party other than him who has a pan-India appeal,” Mallikarjun Kharge told PTI on Saturday.

The leadership crisis is a long standing issue with some in the party calling for a non-Gandhi face to lead the party. Sonia Gandhi who is the current working president said she would not carry on as the party chief citing health reasons.

With inputs from News18