The Congress party is likely to call its All India Congress Committee (AICC) session as early as January next year to elect its new president, two senior party leaders involved in the matter told HT.

At the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday, a section of the leaders had initially suggested that the session be held within a year, but party leader Rahul Gandhi and many others preferred holding it in the next six months.

A January schedule for this mammoth organisational exercise also suits the party, as there would be no major elections round the corner after this year’s Bihar assembly poll. In 2021, elections for five assemblies—Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry—are slated in April, providing enough time for the Congress to come up with a rejigged team headed by a new leader.

Sonia Gandhi, who has been the interim president of the party since August 2019, had offered to resign and asked the CWC to start the process to find a new chief, but amid heated debate over a letter signed by 23 senior leaders seeking major changes in the functioning of the Congress, many leaders, including former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, urged her to continue until such time as the new president is elected.

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Party leaders also added that Rahul Gandhi, who led the party for two years between 2017 and 2019, is against returning to the hot seat, but thousands of Congress workers and many leaders are keen to see him as the leader and may not accept a non-Gandhi.

Also Read:At CWC meeting, Congress leaders ask Sonia Gandhi to continue as party chief, criticise letter

Sonia Gandhi has already completed one year as the party’s interim chief. She was the party president for over 19 years, from May 1998 to December 2017—the longest uninterrupted tenure in the history of the Congress—when Rahul Gandhi took over the reins. He resigned in May 2019, taking moral responsibility for the party’s rout in the Lok Sabha elections.

An AICC session is a marathon process that starts with a membership drive and election of delegates from the state-level. In the recent history of the party, the president has been selected unanimously, barring the one instance when Jitendra Prasada decided to contest against Sonia Gandhi in 2000. He lost miserably.