Rahul Gandhi to Chair First CWC Meet as Party Chief, Chart Fightback After 2G Verdict 'Victory'

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi will chair a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Friday, his first as Congress president.

The CWC will accord a warm welcome to the new president and likely discuss the current political situation, including the rise in the party’s seat count in Gujarat and the ramifications of the 2G spectrum scam verdict.

Sources said the Committee is likely to pass a resolution, “defending” former prime minister Manmohan Singh over the 2G scam issue.

The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had used the alleged scam to the hilt while mounting a fierce campaign against the Congress in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Alleged corruption under UPA II was widely believed to have led to the defeat of the Manmohan Singh government.

The meeting, sources said, would also discuss the situation arising out of the continued face-off between the government and the main opposition Congress over Modi's remark against Singh suggesting that he colluded with some current and former Pakistani officials to influence the Gujarat polls.

The Congress, sources said, wants to take the 2G issue to the people for which it is likely to formalise a plan soon. The CWC, the party's highest decision-making body, is also likely to adopt a resolution to this effect.

The agenda for the meeting was, however, not officially disclosed.

Though Rahul Gandhi has chaired CWC meetings in the past in the absence of his mother Sonia Gandhi, it will be for the first time that he will preside over it as Congress president.

Gandhi was elected unopposed as Congress chief on December 11 and assumed the party's reins on December 16.

(With PTI inputs)