Rahul Gandhi to Cong leaders: Party needs new chief

New Delhi: Even as uncertainty remained over his continuance at the helm, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday chaired a meeting of the coordination committee for Haryana and asked them to begin preparations for the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Among the leaders present in the meeting were Congress General Secretary in-charge of the state Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bhupinder Hooda and his son Deepinder Hooda, Kumari Shailja, Kiran Chowdhary and Ashok Tanwar.

As soon as the meeting began, the leaders present are understood to have asked Mr Gandhi to reconsider his decision to resign from the position of the Congress President after the Lok Sabha polls debacle.

However, the Congess president told them it was not possible and the party needed to find a new president.

Following this he asked the Haryana leaders as to where the party needs to focus for the Assembly polls. At this the leaders informed him that the party needed to strengthen its organisation at the block level.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and PCC Chief Sachin Pilot is expected to meet senior leaders Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad and A.K. Antony in the capital.

Mr Pilot was blamed by Rajasthan chief minister and his detractor Ashok Gehlot for his son's Vaibhav's defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.