In the first contact between the Congress leadership and the disgruntled G-23 group after the defeat in the recent assembly elections, party chief Sonia Gandhi is believed to have spoken to senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad. However, sources have told that a meeting between Sonia and some leaders was possible.
G-23 leaders said the “only way forward” for the party was to “adopt a model of collective and inclusive leadership and decision-making” at all levels. Some G-23 leaders met at Azad’s residence on Wednesday for dinner. Three newcomers also arrived – veteran leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, Lok Sabha MP and former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh’s wife Preneet Kaur, and Gujarat leader Shankersinh Vaghela, who quit the Congress in 2017. Vaghela joined the NCP in 2019, but left last year. It is being told that he wants to return to Congress.
For the first time, he made the meeting official by issuing a statement signed by 18 leaders. “We… members of the Congress party met to deliberate on the gloomy situation of the recent results of the assembly elections and the frequent exodus of both our workers and leaders. We believe that adopting a model of collective and inclusive leadership and decision making is the only way forward for the Congress Party at all levels.
Said, ‘It is necessary to strengthen the Congress party to oppose the BJP. We demand the Congress party to initiate dialogue with other like-minded forces to create a platform to pave the way for a credible alternative for 2024. Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Raj Babbar, Vaghela, Iyer, Shashi Tharoor, PJ Kurien, MA Khan, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Sandeep Dixit, Kuldeep Sharma, Vivek Tankha And Preneet Kaur was among the signatories.
A party leader who attended the meeting told The Indian Express, “We are not going to leave the Congress until we are thrown out. We will continue to insist that the party should be democratised. And to democratize the party and make it a credible alternative to BJP for 2024, we will travel across the country to garner public opinion on the above objectives.”