Former Gujarat Chief Minister Shankersinh Vaghela has said that if Ahmed Patel had been there today, there would have been no G-23 (group of leaders considered dissatisfied with Congress). At present, the party leadership is missing his advice. Apart from this, he called the party’s decision to give a big responsibility to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as “Miss Fire”.
On Thursday (March 17, 2022), Vaghela said that after Patel’s death, there is no leader in the Congress who can guide the top leadership of the party and the party is bearing the brunt.
The former veteran Congress leader termed the Congress’s decision to give the responsibility of Uttar Pradesh elections to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as ‘Miss Fire’. Said, “The recent performance of Congress in the elections shows that the party is missing Ahmed Patel. After his demise, there is no one to replace him and guide the leadership. If the party had found someone like him, this was no reason to form a faction like G-23.”
Vaghela, who attended a meeting of leaders of the G-23 faction considered dissatisfied with the Congress in Delhi a day ago, said these things to reporters at his residence in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Let us inform that Ahmed Patel, a political advisor and a trusted confidante of Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, passed away in 2020, while Vaghela himself is no longer associated with any political party after leaving the Congress in 2017.
Meanwhile, the Congress leadership started the exercise of reaching out to the ‘G23’ and listening to their side. Under this, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda met Rahul Gandhi on Thursday. Sources say that during his meeting with Rahul Gandhi, which lasted for more than an hour, discussions were held regarding the results of the recent assembly elections and strengthening the party. Rahul Gandhi had called Hooda for talks on the political situation in Haryana.
Also, the main member of this group, Ghulam Nabi Azad, is expected to meet the party chief on March 18, 2022. Sources associated with the ‘G23’ group say that these leaders have discussed the steps which they believe are necessary to strengthen the Congress. He also decided that he would convey his stand to the leadership that his intention was only to strengthen the organization of the party so that the ‘idea of India’ could be saved as only Congress could do it. ‘