Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who went abroad for a medical check-up, returned home along with her son Rahul Gandhi. Rahul had joined Sonia soon after the results of the Assembly polls of the five States were declared, raising questions over his leadership. However, there has been pressure from the party cadre for an immediate orgnisational restructuring.
Party leaders said that Sonia Gandhi is doing fine. Sonia had left the country earlier this month to an undisclosed destination for a routine medical check-up.
The 70-year-old leader had for the first time in many years did not campaign for her party in the Assembly elections. The two leaders have returned to the country amid a growing clamour for structural changes within the party after its
debacle in the crucial Uttar Pradesh elections. A section of leaders have also called for elevating Rahul.
Sonia has not been keeping well for quite some time and has entrusted all party work to Rahul for a few months now.
While senior Congress leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar strongly pitched for making Rahul Gandhi the Party President at a time when questions are being raised over his leadership abilities, he advocated a role of a mentor for party president Sonia Gandhi and asserted that the Congress has to move from being an inclusive party to setting up “an inclusive alliance”.
Senior party leaders like M Veerappa Moily and Satyavrat Chaturvedi have also pitched for initiating changes and “surgery” within the party to infuse fresh strength into it. Asked what is stopping the Congress from implementing the ‘introspection reports’ which suggest changes in
the party, Moily said, “I don’t know, I therefore think, it is time Rahul got on with it as
he has said he wishes to do. And perhaps, it is because
he has not been the President, that he has not been able to
do this.”