New Delhi: United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi was on Saturday (August 10) named as the interim Congress president, returning at the helm after almost 20 months.

The announcement was made on Saturday night after Congress Working Committee (CWC) accepted Rahul Gandhi's resignation during its second meeting of the day.

A number of leaders, including state chiefs and MPs, backed Rahul to continue on the post despite his refusal to reconsider his resignation. However, he did not budge from his stand of quitting as party chief.

Several senior leaders including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, P Chidambaram and many others arrived to attend the meeting.

According to reports, the meeting was presided over by Singh.

Earlier in the day, the CWC, the party's top decision-making body met to decide the new party chief. But following Rahul's assertion that a new party chief be appointed, the party formed five sub-groups region-wise to consult with the party leaders on the successor.

In the first CWC meeting in the morning, Rahul and Sonia said that they did not want to be a part of the process to choose the successor to the post of party chief.

The reports further said that all the five sub-groups, including the one with Rahul's sister Priyanka on board, proposed Rahul's name.

In a press conference, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the CWC discussed in detail about the president of the party. Three Resolutions were adopted in the meeting. Later, KC Venugopal said that the Congress party appreciated the work done by Rahul during his tenure as party president.