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CWC backs Sonia Gandhi: Reuters

Gandhi, from the Nehru-Gandhi family, faces an expected leadership challenge from Jitendra Prasada, a former Congress vice president who said the country's oldest political grouping was in deep trouble and needed an overhaul.

All 24 members of the Congress Working Committee, the party's highest decision-making body, except Prasada, signed a statement endorsing Gandhi's candidature, the party official said.

"We the undersigned members of the CWC wholeheartedly support the candidature of Sonia Gandhi and request our colleagues in the electoral college to do so," the official quoted a party statement as saying.

An electoral college of Congress delegates chosen from regional units is due to vote on the leadership on November 12. Prasada's prospects are rated as low in a party that has traditionally been tightly-controlled by the Nehru-Gandhi family, but his criticism of the party has ruffled feathers.

Prasada was a former political secretary to Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi's husband assassinated in 1991, when he was prime minister. He has accused Sonia Gandhi of surrounding herself with advisers who spend more time in palace intrigues than in party-building work.

But Congress bosses say Gandhi has held the party together and was transparent in her decision-making.

"She has with single-minded dedication and determination held the party together and encouraged free debate and transparency," the party statement said.

Gandhi took charge of Congress in 1998, raising the dejected party's hopes of a return to past glory but has been unable to lift its fortunes.

The Congress, which has ruled India for more than 40 years since the country won independence from Britain in 1947, slumped to its worst showing in the 1999 election, winning just 114 deputies in the 545-member Parliament.

"Conceived historically as a party of governance, it (Congress) has yet to script a new role for itself in the changed circumstances," analyst Yogendra Yadav said.

The Congress: The war within

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