Ahead of election for the Congress party's leadership, the Rajasthan unit of the party on Saturday passed a resolution to make Rahul Gandhi the national president of the party.
The Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) on Saturday unanimously passed the resolution. It comes ahead of the start of filing of nominations for the election of the Congress president.
Rajasthan Food Minister Pratap Singh Khachariya said the resolution was proposed by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
He said, "The resolution to make Rahul Gandhi party's national president was passed...Everyone supported it by raising their hands."
Khachariyawas said that the "right to appoint state Congress president and AICC members was left to the party high command". A resolution was also passed in this regard.
The party's state in-charge Ajay Maken, organisation election officer (PRO) Rajendra Kumpawat, state president Govind Singh Dotasra and party members from different districts of the state attended the meeting held at the party's state headquarters on Saturday.
Nominations for the post of Congress president can be filed during September 24-30. The election, if required, will be held on October 17, the party has said.
State units had passed a similar resolution when Rahul was elevated as Congress president in 2017. He resigned after the party's debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Rahul's mother Sonia Gandhi is the current interim president of the Congress party. The elections are necessitated in the party after an internal rethink following the drubbing in five assembly elections earlier this year. The party had then decided to continue with Sonia as interim chief until a permanent party president is elected. Internal organisational reforms were also proposed and subsequently a "chintan shivir" was held in Rajasthan's Udaipur to brainstorm over the party's future.
Calls have been made earlier as well for Rahul to take the Congress leadership. When the post-poll rethink was on in the party, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala had said that every Congress worker wanted Rahul to lead the party, but as the process of the organisational polls were underway, the next president will be decided through that process.
Rahul is currently spearheading the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra, a Kanyakumari to Kashmir march that's an attempt to revive the Congress party that has continued to face electoral drubbing in recent past.
(With PTI inputs)
