Close to five years after Rahul Gandhi was appointed Congress vice-president in Jaipur in January 2013, he will take on the top job in the party later this year, probably in November in Delhi, senior party sources told The Hindu.
It will also be a year after he had told the party’s apex decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), that he was ready and willing to be president.
Longest term
This will bring to an end Sonia Gandhi’s 19-year-long presidency, the longest in the Congress’s 132-year-old history, 10 years of which the party led the United Progressive Alliance coalition at the Centre.
She is also only the fourth woman — after Annie Besant, Sarojini Naidu and Indira Gandhi — to be Congress president.
But these sources said that Ms. Gandhi will not retire from politics after she steps down as president.
She will continue to be a member of the CWC and will, in all likelihood, be chairperson of the party’s Parliamentary Board.
Elections will be held for 10 of the 21 CWC seats, 10 will be nominated, and the 21st seat will be that of the president.
Once the transition takes place, party sources said, Mr. Gandhi will complete appointing his team for 2019. Though it will see many fresh faces, some of the older leaders will survive. But the pattern of senior appointments has already been established: no general secretary will be in charge of more than one State, and he – or she – will be assisted by a few secretaries.
In the last few years, even though Ms. Gandhi had gradually begun to hand over most of the organisational tasks to her son, there were often complaints from those around Mr. Gandhi that he was being prevented from making appointments or decisions by Ms. Gandhi’s team.
After the change of guard takes place, the tension between the older leaders and Mr. Gandhi should end, as his will now be the final word.
Organisational polls
By the time the AICC session takes place, the organisational elections currently under way will be completed, except in the two poll-bound States of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, where the party is focussing on preparing for the elections.
Once Mr. Gandhi returns from his trip to the United States later this week, he will get busy in the poll-bound States.