Gorbachev Asks March Election

MOSCOW —  Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev proposed today the holding of a March election to create a Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies that will choose a new president with increased powers.

The new Soviet Congress would replace the rubber-stamp Supreme Soviet of 1,500 members, while Gorbachev would likely be the main candidate for the new powerful post of president. Gorbachev ended a one-day plenum of the Communist Party Central Committee by urging that it begin to implement the reforms approved at the special 19th All-Union Party Congress earlier this month, Tass press agency said.