‘Only needs to withdraw resignation’: Shashi Tharoor on Rahul Gandhi as Cong chief

A day earlier, on Sunday, Tharoor had said that the Congress needed to hasten the process of finding a full-term president to arrest the growing public perception that the party was “adrift and rudderless”.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Monday said if Rahul Gandhi was ready to helm the Congress party he only had to withdraw his resignation and party workers, CWC members and everyone else would be willing to accept him as their leader since he had been the incumbent chief of the party earlier.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said that the party needed to elect a new chief soon.(HT PHOTO.)

“If Rahul Gandhi is ready to resume the leadership, he only has to withdraw his resignation. I think party workers, Congress Working Committee and everyone will accept that because he was the incumbent president elected in December 2017,” Tharoor said.

“If he says, no I don’t want to come back, then the question that many of the party members are asking – ‘How long can we carry on like this?’ - that is the question. We would ideally like a clear-cut decision as soon as possible,” the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

A day earlier, on Sunday, Tharoor had said that the Congress needed to hasten the process of finding a full-term president to arrest the growing public perception that the party was “adrift and rudderless”. He also said that he certainly thought that Rahul Gandhi had the “mettle, capability and aptitude to once again lead the party”, but if he did not wish to do so then the party must “take action” and elect a new chief soon.

The Congress party on the other hand announced on the same day within a few hours that Sonia Gandhi will continue as the interim president till such time that a “proper procedure” is implemented in the “not too distant future” to elect a party chief.

Former party chief and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had quit as the president after the party’s massive drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls held in 2019 and despite repeated appeals from party colleagues and Congress workers, he had not taken back his resignation. Sonia Gandhi had then stepped in as interim president later that year.

Sonia Gandhi’s tenure as interim chief comes to an end on August 10, one year after she assumed the post, but that does not indicate that the seat automatically falls vacant that day, senior Congress leaders have said.