Shortly after Sonia Gandhi asked her Congress colleagues today to start looking for her replacement, the first person to urge her to continue was former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Another senior leader, AK Antony, said if she did not continue, Rahul Gandhi should take over as party president. Sonia Gandhi's decision comes after a massive controversy over the leak of a letter written by 26 top Congress leaders demanding a "full-time, visible leadership" and asking for sweeping reforms in the organisation and its elections. Manmohan Singh, the third to speak at the virtual Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, asked Sonia Gandhi to remain party president until a full session of the All India Congress Committee, where the process of scouting for a new chief could begin. He also hit out at the signatories of the letter.
