New Delhi: The Congress’ internal quarrel would be thrashed out Thursday evening — or may even come to a head — when dissenter-in-chief Ghulam Nabi Azad meets party president Sonia Gandhi.
It is learnt Azad would present Gandhi with the resolution of a meeting held Wednesday which was attended by dissenters and several fresh faces.
The dissenters or G23 is a group of 23 leaders who had written to Sonia Gandhi last August demanding a leadership change.
Wednesday’s resolution emphasised that the only way forward for the party was to adopt “a model of collective and inclusive leadership and decision-making at all levels”.
The meeting was held at the Azad residence and saw a few new faces including that of leaders Shashi Tharoor, Mani Shankar Aiyar and Manish Tiwari.
The resolution also read: “We met to deliberate on the demoralising outcome of the recent results… and the constant exodus of both our workers and leaders… In order to oppose the BJP, it is necessary to strengthen the Congress party. We demand the Congress party initiate dialogue with other like-minded forces to create a platform to pave the way for a credible alternative for 2024 and the next steps in this regard will be announced soon.”
Though there was no official confirmation from Sonia Gandhi’s office about Thursday’s meeting, party sources said her children Rahul and Priyanka could attend.
The Congress’ fortunes sank to an all-time low this month when it was routed by the opposition in five states.
The muffled clamour for a change in leadership found a defiant voice this week in senior G23 leader Kapil Sibal. He told a newspaper that the top brass was living in “cuckoo land” if they thought “chintan shivirs” could still solve the Congress’ problems. He said the Gandhis should voluntarily step aside and give someone else a chance.
At a post-mortem meeting after the election debacle, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka had offered to resign but that “sacrifice” was “unanimously rejected” by loyalists.
Sonia then sacked the Congress chiefs of the five states and named a panel of senior leaders to suggest more changes. These men are Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, Avinash Pandey and Jitendra Singh.
Also read: Dear Rahul and Priyanka, you had your chance, you blew it. Let someone else do the job