Congress meet breaks ice but no meeting ground on organisational elections

The group led by Azad reiterated the demand for holding elections to the Central Working Committee and at general secretary level.
Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi (File photo| Shekhar Yadav, EPS)
Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi (File photo| Shekhar Yadav, EPS)

NEW DELHI: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Saturday met a group of party leaders, months after they wrote to her seeking organizational changes, and while the meeting at her residence proved to be an ice breaker, there was no agreement over the demand for organizational elections.

All that the “letter writers” were assured of was an election for the Congress president with many asking Rahul Gandhi to take charge while he said he was ready to take whatever responsibility the party assigns him. General secretary in charge of UP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, was also present at the meeting.

Among the letter writers were Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Manish Tewari, Vivek Tankha, Shashi Tharoor, and Prithviraj Chavan.

In a four-hour meeting, all leaders were made to express their views and the contents flagged by the letter writers were discussed.

The group led by Azad reiterated the demand for holding elections to the Central Working Committee and at general secretary level. But other party veterans such as Ambika Soni and Harish Rawat, seen as Gandhi family loyalists, opposed the demand as appointments had already been made. In September, the CWC was reconstituted and general secretaries were reshuffled.

The leaders from the group of 23 also expressed their reservations over Randeep Surjewala’s statement that 99.99 per cent want Rahul as the party chief.

They mentioned the party’s loss in the Bihar assembly elections and the recent bypolls, which were directly handled by Rahul’s close aide.

According to sources, Sonia assured them that elections for the top post would happen soon. She agreed to a suggestion that the party should hold a chintan shivir sometime next year.

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