New Delhi: The Congress’ Central Election Authority on Monday decided to postpone the election of a new party president due to the ongoing pandemic. The Congress’s election body had recommended that voting for a new party chief can take place on June 23. Sources say the Congress’s central election committee has suggested June 7 as the deadline for nominations for the party top post. But the Congress Working Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, said the elections should be put off given the COVID-19 crisis. Sources say the decision to seek a delay was unanimous.

The party chief’s post has been at the centre of turmoil since the party’s 2019 general election debacle. This election is meant to mark the Gandhis’ break from Congress’s leadership amid rumblings in the ranks alongside a series of defeats.

Rahul Gandhi, who took over the post from mother Sonia Gandhi in 2017, stepped down after the Lok Sabha polls owning responsibility for the Congress defeat. He also suggested in a long resignation note that a non-Gandhi should take charge. But the Congress failed to zero in on a replacement and urged Sonia Gandhi to return as interim chief.