The Congress party on Saturday once again elected as UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi as its parliamentary party leader. The decision was taken in the first meeting of newly elected Congress Lok Sabha MPs.

Sonia won UP's Rae Bareli constituency by defeating the BJP's Dinesh Pratap Singh by over 1.67 lakh votes.

All 52 Lok Sabha MPs of the Congress were present at the meeting, besides its members in the Rajya Sabha.

The Congress Parliamentary Party has also authorised Gandhi to pick the party's leader in Lok Sabha. She has convened a meeting of senior leaders in the afternoon to decide on the matter. "Smt. Sonia Gandhi elected as the leader of Congress Parliamentary Party! She says, 'we thank the 12.13 Cr voters for reposing faith in the Congress Party'," Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted.

Gandhi's name was proposed by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and seconded by Jharkhand MP Jothimani S and Kerala MP K Sudhakaran.

Gandhi, in her speech, lauded the role of Congress president Rahul Gandhi during the Lok Sabha polls.

Rahul led the "party from the front with dynamism", she said, adding that the party with its 52 MPs in Lok Sabha will play the role of the opposition sincerely and raise people's issues.

"Congratulations to Smt Sonia Gandhi on being elected Leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. Under her leadership, the Congress will prove to be a strong & effective opposition party, that will fight to defend the Constitution of India," the Congress president tweeted.

This was the first official meeting that Congress president Rahul Gandhi attended after the May 25 meeting of the party's working committee, where he had offered to quit as Congress chief.

The CWC has already rejected his offer to resign and unanimously passed a resolution authorising him to bring structural changes in the party at all levels in a bid to revamp it.

With inputs fro PTI.

First Published:Jun 1, 2019 11:11 AM IST