Dissatisfied with the stand of Gandhi-family loyalists at the March 13 meeting of the party’s highest decision-making body – the Congress Working Committee, the dissidents have held several meetings since March 16.
During the talks, the leaders discussed the steps they felt were necessary to strengthen the party, and decided to convey to the leadership that their sole interest was to “save the idea of India” to the organization. To strengthen, which only a strong Congress can do, a . According to ANI report good.
A day after the Group of 23 stood for “inclusive and collective leadership” in the Congress, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, one of its members, met Rahul Gandhi and the two leaders discussed reforming the party organisation. Opponents’ demand
Gandhi family’s attempt to reach G-23
The meeting is being seen as an attempt by the Gandhi family to reach out to the G-23, which has shown signs of increasing aggression on the leadership issue after the Congress’ defeat in assembly elections in five states.
Sources said that during the meeting that lasted for about one and a half hours, they discussed the party’s defeat in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa.
Former Congress president Gandhi had called Hooda to discuss the political situation in Haryana. However, the discussion spread over the poor performance of the party in the five state elections.
Sonia Gandhi had earlier reached Azad at his residence on Wednesday ahead of the G-23 dinner meeting.
The leaders of the group have since held several meetings at Azad’s residence.
After Thursday’s meeting, Hooda, the former Haryana chief minister, met the informal leader of the group, Ghulam Nabi Azad, at his residence.
It is learned that Hooda and Azad had discussed “concrete proposals” to strengthen the Congress, details of which were not immediately known.
The G-23 had strongly advocated for “collective leadership” in its meeting here on Wednesday.
Deputy leader of Congress in Rajya Sabha and another G-23 leader Anand Sharma also joined Hooda at Azad’s residence where he discussed the outcome of his meeting with Rahul Gandhi.
Later in the evening, Sibal also met Azad at his residence.
According to sources, Hooda told Gandhi that the G-23 leaders were not seeking any post, but only wanted to strengthen the party.
Amid calls from a section of Gandhi family loyalists to take action against Kapil Sibal, who had recently said that the Gandhi family should separate and pave the way for someone else to take over the reins of the party, Hooda slammed Rahul Gandhi that such a move would be unacceptable to the group as the disgruntled leader had only talked about strengthening the Congress.
TS Singh Deo, minister in Chhattisgarh, was the latest Congress leader to demand action against Sibal on Thursday for speaking out against the party leadership.
Leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury also condemned the leaders for publicly expressing their grievances. “Sonia Gandhi listens to everyone and if there is any grievance, it should be raised within the party and not in public,” he said.
Congress sources said the party leadership wants to resolve differences with the G-23 and is reaching out to its leaders. Some senior leaders are understood to have been appointed to hold talks with the dissident group to resolve the differences.
The G-23 has been consistently demanding a reorganization of the organization since it first wrote about it in 2020 after the electoral defeat to Sonia Gandhi and the party’s dwindling clout.
“The only way forward for Congress was to adopt a model of inclusive and collective leadership and decision-making at all levels,” the group said in a statement on Wednesday.
He insisted that he wanted to strengthen the Congress and “not to weaken it in any way.”
A report also stated that G-23 leaders discussed some “concrete proposals” to strengthen the Congress, the details of which were not immediately known.
These proposals can be considered when Azad, once a loyalist of the Gandhi family, meets the Congress president.
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