The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is likely meet next week to decide on the new President to end the deepening leadership crisis in the party after Rahul Gandhi resigned from the post owning responsibility Lok Sabha poll debacle.
Sources in the party said that Congress leaders are deliberating to find out a suitable replacement of Gandhi. They, however, are yet to reach any conclusion.
Six senior party leaders will soon sit together to decide the date of the next meeting of the CWC, the party's top decision-making body, to decide on the new party chief, sources said.
"The process of selection of a new president will start soon. Congress cannot be without its President for long," a CWC member said.
The leader ruled out any possibility of Rahul Gandhi taking back his decision to step down from the post.
An interim president with rich experience of Congress as well as of Indian politics would be appointed until a new president is elected, sources added.
Congress has also made it clear that Gandhi will continue to discharge his duties as party chief until the CWC accepts his resignation.
Congress has been facing a leadership crisis post-Rahul Gandhi decision to quit as the president at a CWC meeting on May 25, two days after Lok Sabha election results were announced.
Since then he had been insisting on not taking back his decision despite several senior party leaders' attempts to persuade him to lead the party.
Gandhi, who took reins of the grand old party in 2017, took to Twitter on Wednesday to post a four-page resignation letter, saying that the party should decide on a new chief without delay.
Congress put a dismal showing the recent Lok Sabha polls with winning a meagre 52 out of total 542 Lok Sabha seats.
Several senior party leaders lost the polls. Gandhi himself lost to Union Minister Smriti Ir in Amethi, a seat he has been representing since 2004 in the lower House of Parliament. He, however, was elected from Kerala's Wayanad with a spectacular margin.
( With inputs from ANI )