Sonia Gandhi set to be re-elected Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson

NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi is expected to be re- elected as the Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party at its first meeting here on May 24 after the 16th Lok Sabha polls which saw the party's strength in the House nosediving to 44 from 206 in 2009. The meeting of the CPP general body is being held ahead of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government taking over on May 26. Congress has closed its ranks behind the Gandhis to lead them in these "tough and trying times" for the party.

The CPP Chairperson would nominate the leaders of the party in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha at a time when there is still a question mark over whether Congress will get the Leader of Opposition post in the Lower House after failing to win the requisite number of 55 seats.

Although the name of Kamal Nath is doing the rounds for the post of the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, a party general secretary insisted that consensus is possible only on the name of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Earlier, some leaders had indicated that Sonia and her deputy Rahul are both averse to taking up the post of Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha. That would brighten the chances of Kamal Nath, the senior- most Congress MP, becoming leader of Congress in the House. The party had yesterday said that there was "absolutely no legal bar" for it to get the post of the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha despite falling short of the requisite numbers.

The CPP meet would follow the meeting of the Congress Working Committee on May 19 in which both Sonia and Rahul had offered to resign from their party posts, although that was rejected unanimously by Congress leaders.