Amid leadership debate, key Cong meet next week

Amid an ongoing debate over the issue of leadership of the Congress, the party's highest decision-making body, the working committee, is slated to meet virtually next week.

Sources said that the formal CWC meeting can happen as early as Monday or later and it is a percursor to a trial meeting of the party members on Saturday.

The trial meeting is to familiarise them with a new digital platform, WebEx, which the party will henceforth use for all its virtual interactions, they said.

The switch has come in view of the government issuing advisories regarding data privacy concerns about Zoom which the Congress was using earlier.

The CWC meeting comes close on the heels of Congress president Sonia Gandhi completing one year as interim party chief, a post which she accepted last year after her son Rahul Gandhi stepped down.

A debate is again raging in the Congress over uncertainty related to its leadership, with a section of party leaders, including some MPs, asking Rahul Gandhi to return to the helm.

In an official party briefing two days ago, the Congress said party workers across the country want Rahul Gandhi to assume Congress leadership.