Sonia Gandhi will be the interim Congress president, party leaders decided today.

Before requesting Sonia to lead the party, Congress leaders asked Rahul Gandhi to reconsider his resignation and stay on as president, which he refused.

Sonia agreed to take on the role and will lead the Congress till a new full-time president is chosen.

The choice of Sonia, who has led the Congress to two election victories in 2004 and 2009, has come at a time when there was talk that the new president would be from outside the Gandhi family.

The names that had done the rounds were of Mukul Wasnik, Mallikarjun Kharge, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot.

Rahul had hinted that a non-Gandhi may lead the party. Congress leader Amarinder Singh had said a young leader should lead the charge. Mumbai Congress leader Milind Deora had flagged the names of Scindia and Pilot.

These utterances made the matter of choosing the Congress president seem like an open race of non-Gandhis.

But Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, at the news conference just after the CWC meeting, said that the rank and file of the party was confident only under the leadership of Rahul or Sonia Gandhi. Later to the NDTV news channel, Jyotirditya Scindia made a near-identical comment.