Inside Story of How Sonia Became Interim Prez

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) handed over thepresidency of the party to Sonia Gandhi after months of uncertainty, two yearsafter she relinquished the post for her son Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul, who took over the charge of the party in 2017tendered his resignation as party chief at the CWC meeting on May 25, takingmoral responsibility for the party's drubbing in the general elections afterwhich the party was looking for a new Party Chief.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, a CWC meeting was called in whichthe committee created five groups and asked suggestions from its state unitsacross the country. The opinion of the leaders remains unanimous on Rahulcontinuing as the party chief but he turned down the request and asserted thatthe next party chief could be a non-Gandhi now.

The Congress then mulled over different names for theentire day and some suggested non-Gandhi names for the party chief but the thenformer finance minister P Chidambaram proposed that Sonia Gandhi should be madethe party's interim President.

However, Sonia Gandhi refuses to the proposal ofChidambaram and even her daughter Priyanka Gandhi who was present in themeeting has not accepted the proposal but she later said that if her mother isready then nobody can say anything.

Congress leaders including Ambika Soni, Asha Kumariand Kumari Shailja also chipped in to state that the party cannot functionwithout Gandhi family and asked Sonia to convince Rahul but she refused to talkto him.

These leaders clearly told Sonia that she has to takethe responsibility of the party and when all the CWC members repeated theirrequest, the 72-year-old Sonia was persuaded to accept the proposal.

According to sources, the office bearers of AICC willnot be changed until Sonia constitutes a new team.