The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting amid Sonia Gandhi’s decision to step down as party’s working president is reminiscent of a similar crisis the grand old party faced two decades ago.
Following the assassination of her husband and former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi on Mar 21, 1991, Sonia Gandhi refused to join the party. In 1997, however, she became a primary member of the party.
Prior to that, former Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao and former Union Minister Sitaram Kesari had led the party. Their tenures were, however, cut short in the wake of internal revolt.
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Rao stepped down in 1996 and Kesari was removed ahead of 1998 midterm elections. The two leaders were the only two non-Gandhi family presidents in the recent history of the grand old party.
Finally, on March 14, 1998, Sonia Gandhi was elected as the Congress president with a hope of uniting the party. Her term didn’t last long, however.
A year later, just ahead of Lok Sabha elections 1999, she stepped down from the post. Prominent Congress leaders, Sharad Pawar, PA Sangma and Tariq Anwar had protested her projection as Prime Ministerial candidate owing to her foreign origin.
What followed was a resignation spree of Congress leaders, including Digvijaya Singh in Madhya Pradesh, Sheila Dikshit in Delhi, Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan apart from a pan-India agitation against her decision to step down. On May 24, 1999, Sonia Gandhi withdrew her resignation. Pawar, Sangma and Anwar were expelled for six years.
Also Read: Congress crisis: Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh express faith in Sonia Gandhi's leadership
The ongoing meeting of CWC comes in the backdrop of a letter, addressed to Sonia Gandhi, by 23 top leaders of the Congress party complaining about a drift in the party and calling for a “full time, visible leadership”
Gandhi, 73, became the interim president of the party after Rahul Gandhi quit as the party chief in May 2019 soon after the party’ rout in the general elections in which BJP-led NDA came to power for the second time.
Her term as interim president ended on August 10 but senior party leaders insisted that she continue to lead until such time an election is held to elect a new president.
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