Veteran Congress leader and former union minister Karan Singh on Monday called for an urgent meeting of the Congress Working Committee that he said could be chaired by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take necessary decisions following Rahul Gandhi’s resignation as the party chief.

Rahul Gandhi, 49, had stunned his party’s top leadership at the 25 May meeting of the CWC when he first spoke about his decision to quit from the top post after the party’s crushing defeat in the national elections.

The CWC, the party’s top decision-making body, gave Rahul Gandhi a free hand to overhaul the party, in the hope of persuading him to change his mind. Those attempts continued till last week when he put out a farewell note on social media to signal that he wasn’t going to go back on his decision.

Karan Singh, 88, said he was “aghast” at the disorientation into which the grand old party has fallen since Gandhi’s resignation more than a month ago.

“As someone who joined the Congress in 1967 over half a century ago, I am aghast to see the confusion and disorientation into which the party has fallen since Rahul Gandhi resigned on May 25. Instead of honouring his bold decision a month was wasted pleading him to take back his resignation which, as a man of honour and integrity, he should not have been pressurised to do,” the veteran Congress leader said in a statement.

“Six weeks have since elapsed and there is still no alternative structure in place,” he added.

The remarks came a day after two young leaders Jyotiraditya Scindia and Milind Deora announced that they had resigned from their posts some days ago, taking moral responsibility for the Congress party’s Lok Sabha poll debacle.

The spate of resignations in solidarity with Gandhi has plunged the Congress into a deep leadership crisis.

Singh said the longer the present uncertainty remains, the more the Congress workers and voters around the country will be demoralised. “The negative cycle must be reversed before it is too late,” he said.

He called for an urgent CWC meeting to take necessary decisions, including appointing an interim Congress president till the next organisational elections.

In his statement, the veteran Congress leader also suggested four working presidents and vice-presidents, one each for the four zones - North, South, East and West.

“This would enable the introduction of younger people into positions of authority,” he said.

First Published: Jul 08, 2019 19:41 IST