Mukul Wasnik frontrunner for Cong chief, decision tomorrow: sources

New Delhi: The Congress Working Committee meeting to be held tomorrow is slated to choose a new party president, sources told NDTV on Friday after a meeting at Sonia Gandhi’s home. Mukul Wasnik has emerged as the front runner for the post left vacant after Rahul Gandhi quit in May, taking responsibility for the party's major loss in the Lok Sabha elections.

It is being said that a non-Gandhi might as well be party president for the first time in two decades as the Congress Working Committee meets tomorrow. 59-year-old Mukul Wasnik, a former minister with a lot of administrative experience with the Congress party, is expected to take charge at least till the organizational elections.

The Congress Working Committee will formally thank Rahul Gandhi for his role as party president, the sources told NDTV,  showing that the party have given up attempts to persuade the 49-year-old to withdraw his resignation.

Senior leaders including AK Antony, Ahmed Patel and KV Venugopal were at the meeting at Sonia Gandhi's house. Sources say the leaders decided that there would be no more delay on picking the next Congress president.

The extent of Congress party’s organizational mess was apparent when the party scrabbled through its objections to the government's move to end special status to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and split it into two union territories.

While leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal tore into the government's decisions in parliament, outside, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Milind Deora, Jaiveer Shergill, Karan Singh and Janardhan Dwivedi came out in its support of the move.

Mukul Wasnik, say sources, is seen as a strong choice to repair the Congress's organizational weaknesses with his long administrative record.

Wasnik has worked in the Congress governments of PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh. He has also worked as general secretary for Sonia Gandhi.