NEW DELHI: As a group of rebel Congress leaders (G-23) continues to attack the leadership, the party high command in order to placate the dissident group, plans to accommodate them in committees on key issues and at vacant positions in the organisation with a big reshuffle on the cards. The group has been keeping the party on toes with continued criticism “It is a move that the party wants them to be part of key decisions irrespective of their continued criticism of the functioning of the party,” said a senior party leader.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the letter writers, has been part of the recently constituted committee under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to plan and coordinate the one-year long celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Independence. The list includes two other members of the G23 — Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Mukul Wasnik as convener.
With growing support for caste census in the country, the party constituted a committee under Veerappa Moily as convenor to study the matters related to the issue. Moily was also among the group that wrote to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in August 2020 over leadership issues and organisational elections.
Former Union minister Jitin Prasada, who recently joined the BJP, and Milind Deora, who was considered close to congress leader Rahul Gandhi, were also part of a group of dissidents. There were rumours about Deora also switching sides and now he has been roped in by the party as part of a countrywide press conference being done on the National Monetisation Plan.
There are also reports that Deora is likely to find a place in working committee. There are four vacant seats there, with Prasada, Sushmita Dev and Jyotiraditya Scindia leaving the party and one due to the passing away of Rajeev Satav.
APPEASEMENT FORMULA?
In order to quell the storm brewing within the party, the Congress high command headed by interim president Sonia Gandhi wants to hand out important positions to the dissenting leaders in various committees.