Rahul Gandhi to address first CWC meeting as Congress president

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to chair his first Congress Working Committee meeting on Friday. The meeting comes a day after the 2G spectrum case verdict by a special CBI court which acquitted all key accused — two of whom were allies in the UPA government. The alleged scam had cost the Manmohan Singh-led government heavily and the party, plagued with corruption allegations, was removed from power in 2014.

While senior Congress leaders like P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal on Thursday said the 2G case verdict has vindicated the Congress’ stand, the newly appointed party president did not react on the matter.It has been learnt that he spoke to Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi, one of the acquitted, over the phone.

Meanwhile, the agenda for the CWC meeting is not officially disclosed. Sources told news agency PTI on Thursday that Gandhi is likely to speak on the 2G spectrum case in the meeting.

The Congress reportedly wants to take the 2G spectrum allocation issue to people and formulate a plan for this soon. The CWC, which is also the party’s highest decision-making body, might adopt a resolution to this effect.

Though Gandhi has chaired CWC meetings in the past in the absence of his mother , this is the first time that he will preside over it as Congress president. The members will accord a warm welcome to him before proceeding on discussions over a range of subjects — including the party’s recent performance in Gujarat. The Congress also held a three-day ‘chintan shivir’ in Ahmedabad to introspect on the reasons behind its failure to reach the halfway mark in the Gujarat polls. Gandhi is slated to be present on the last day of the shivir on Friday.