After veteran leader Karan Singh, senior Congress leader Janardhan Dwivedi on Tuesday expressed his displeasure over the confusion in the party after Rahul Gandhi’s resignation as president and said that Gandhi should form a mechanism to select the new chief.
“Some mechanism should have been constituted by the party president under which the opinion of members of working committee, current and former chief ministers, PCC presidents, and other leaders should have been taken. This would have avoided the present confusion,” Dwivedi said while talking to media persons in Delhi.
Referring to the ‘informal’ discussion on the selection of new president, Dwivedi said that credibility of the panel holding discussions would have been greater if it had been formally set up.
He added that a meeting of the Congress working committee should be called at the earliest to take a decision on the new chief.
Pointing out that technically Gandhi is still the president of the party which empowers him to form a mechanism for selection of new party chief, Dwivedi said: “As the party’s highest decision making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has not accepted his resignation yet. So, technically Gandhi is still Congress president.”
Terming Gandhi’s decsion to resign as Congress preisdent as a bold one, Dwuivedi called on other leaders of the party to follow suit.
“The decision of Rahul to resign as party president is a bold one. It emanates from the realisation that unless he himself takes responsibility for the party’s poor performance, how can he ask others to take responsibility. It is an ideal for other Congress leaders to emulate,” he said.
In a criticism for many senior leaders for not having resigned over the party’s poor show in Lok Sabha polls, he said: “It is surprising that party president has resigned taking responsibility of the defeat, but the senior leaders are still in their place.”
He also distributed the copy of his ‘resignation’ letter from the post of general secretary, following the Congress party’s defeat in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, and said that “I followed what I am saying”.
“However the then president Sonia Gandhi stopped me from resigning,” he added.
Asked if the party’s coordination committee is holding talks to choose new president, Dwivedi said that such committees had been formed for the election only. “What kind of a committee is this in which senior leader A K Antony is not a member?” he asked.
On a lot of talks in the Congress about the selection of a young leader for the party’s top post, the veteran Congress leader said: “Acceptability will be criteria for the party president post.”
Dwivedi’s comments follow close on heels of veteran party leader Karan Singh on Monday expressing concern on the confusion in the party after the resignation of Rahul.
On Monday, Dr Karan Singh had urged party leaders to convene CWC meeting and take decision on new president.
“I strongly urge the Working Committee to meet without delay, perhaps under the chairmanship of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and take necessary decisions”, he had said. (UNI)
