Gehlot said even within the party, there is an opinion in favour of making Rahul the new president.
Mistry said the election authority is in the process of finalising the AICC delegates who will vote in the crucial election for the top party post.
Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the 'Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir' is also aimed at deliberating on challenges facing the country such as "freefall of the economy", increasing inequality of wealth, price rise of essential commodities, "deep-rooted conspiracy" to hand over farming sector to a select group of private corporates, "attack on India's territorial integrity by China, "attack" on rights of Dalits, SCs/STs, minorities and attempts to divide by using Hindu-Muslim rhetoric.
Voting began on Monday in the Congress presidential polls as senior leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Shashi Tharoor face-off for the post of All India Congress Committee (AICC) chief.
While Tharoor declined to comment on whether he would throw his hat into the ring, he has written an article for the Malayalam daily Mathrubhumi calling for a 'free and fair' election.
'When did Mr. Sibal fight an election to get into any position in the party'
Expressing displeasure over the Gujarat Congress's "style of functioning", party leader Hardik Patel on Wednesday claimed that he was sidelined in the state unit and the leadership is not willing to utilise his skills.
Will he, will he not? That is the question on every Congress leader's mind as Rahul Gandhi has still not indicated whether he is ready to take on the mantle of party president.
After Congress president Sonia Gandhi met leaders of the G-23 grouping to resolve internal party issues, former Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar on Wednesday said "indulging the dissenters too much" will encourage more dissent.
According to sources, Sonia Gandhi took a jibe on party leaders, "You all are sitting together right but otherwise you don't even talk to each other."
The group is also reported to be seeking the ouster of some Rahul Gandhi loyalists from key AICC positions and top on their target are AICC general secretary Organisation K C Venugopal, chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and general secretary Ajay Maken.
Legal experts and opposition parties in Assam have slammed the police for arresting the teacher and the judiciary for sending her to jail as consumption of beef, even in public places, is not illegal in the state.
Patel also said that although he had taken up the issue of his harassment with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi many times, no action has been taken to address his grievances.
The leaders who Gandhi met included Deputy Leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari. She is likely to meet some other leaders of the G-23 as well in the coming days.
Rawat through his tweets on Wednesday had expressed anguish at the factionalism in the state unit and noted that thought has been crossing his mind that "it is time to rest".
Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala also said, "Saheb knows his qualities very well". He also shared a copy of the news report.
"The situation has become irretrievable", Azad, 73, said in his parting shot to Sonia Gandhi, whose trusted confidante he remained right from the time of Sitaram Kesri's unceremonious exit as the party's chief in 2000.
The G-23 group seems to have expanded with several senior Congressmen attending Wednesday's meeting.
He said his supporters were apprehensive that joining TMC would invite the "outside party" to Goa which will split votes.
The Congress will reach out to civil society members and like-minded political groups for the 'Bharat Jodo' yatra from October 2 for rallying support to combat polarisation and protect Constitution, democracy and various institutions, senior party leaders said on Thursday.
Soon after Hardik Patel quit the Congress on Wednesday, the opposition party alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party has 'lured' the Patidar leader by promising to get cases against him withdrawn and has 'scripted' his resignation letter.
'Why are the people who stood with the Congress through thick and thin, why are they leaving?'
'Since we defeated their evil designs on July 10, their poaching approach became more aggressive with using blackmail and money power as tools to finish off the political opposition in Goa.'
A new Congress leader may make an electoral impact by his very presence. Congress voters who had moved away from the party, after being influenced by the BJP's 'family rule' campaign, can now return with a certain moral satisfaction, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Tharoor, among the group of 23 leaders who had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking large-scale reforms, said 'reformists' at the end of the day wanted a more consultative process where a wide variety of voices would be heard and taken into account before decisions were made.
Amarinder Singh on Monday held the Gandhis totally responsible for the rout of the Congress in the assembly polls, claiming that the party was "comfortably placed" in Punjab before he was unseated as chief minister.
Several Punjab Congress leaders, including Navjot Singh Sidhu, were on Thursday prevented from heading to Lakhimpur Kheri and were detained at a police station in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress president also announced that a compact task force will be set up to drive the process of internal reforms that are essential.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday denied claims that a Lashkar-e-Tayiba (LeT) terrorist nabbed in Reasi in Jammu and Kashmir was its member, even as the Congress and others attacked the saffron party and demanded a high-level probe.
Mother and son refuse to go away despite indications blowing in the wind that their leadership is ringing the death knell of the party, observes Ramesh Menon.
Strengthening the party's communication strategy to improve public engagement is foremost on the Congress agenda after Rahul Gandhi had stressed that they "have to go back to the people" at the Udaipur meeting.
Just before the Congress Working Committee meeting is scheduled to be held on Monday, an internal dispute had emerged regarding "leadership" issues in the party.
'Wait for more action the day after (the Friday meeting).'
After the party's drubbing in the just-concluded assembly polls in five states, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has asked its state unit chiefs in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur to put in their papers.
The UP Congress reportedly passed a resolution demanding action against Prasada, a leader from Uttar Pradesh, and has accused his family of being against the Gandhi family.
'The Congress can exist without (someone from) the Nehru-Gandhi family being its president.'
Anand Sharma asserted that the Congress has a history of upholding freedom of expression.
The Congress Working Committee, the party's top-decision making body, would soon meet to deliberate further on the Chintan Shivir plans, the sources said.
The Congress is likely to enforce the 'One family, one ticket' formula granting exemption to only another family member who has been doing 'exemplary work' for the party for a period of at least five years, as the grand old party promised big ticket changes while acknowledging that it had not kept pace with changing times.
Stating that he was "proud to be a Hindu", Patel denied speculation that he was joining the BJP.
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