Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and some other members of G-32 faction will meet party interim president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi today. Sources gave this information. The meeting is scheduled to take place after an important meeting of the Congress Working Committee on March 14. It discussed the poor performance of the party in the recent five state assembly elections.
According to news agency ANI, Rahul Gandhi told sources that the timing of the meeting will be decided after talking to Sonia Gandhi and will be informed. Earlier, only Azad was scheduled to meet Sonia Gandhi. Only Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, and Mukul Wasnik factions from the G-23 faction were present in the CWC meeting. He has repeatedly put pressure on the party high command regarding organizational change.
Earlier on Thursday, faction member Bhupinder Singh Hooda had met Rahul Gandhi and both the leaders discussed reforms of the party organisation. The meeting is being seen as an attempt by the Gandhi family to end the dispute with the leaders of the G-23 faction. It has shown aggressive stance on the issue of change of leadership after the defeat of Congress 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.
Anand Sharma, deputy leader of Congress in Rajya Sabha and one of the disgruntled leaders, also attended a meeting with Hooda at Azad’s residence, where his meeting with Rahul Gandhi was discussed. Later in the evening, Kapil also met Sibal 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.
Recently, Kapil Sibal had said that someone else should take over the reins of the party instead of the Gandhi family. A section of Gandhi family loyalists had demanded action against him for this. Hooda told Rahul Gandhi that such a move would be unacceptable to the group as the disgruntled leader had only talked about strengthening the Congress.