Sonia Gandhi meets Ghulam Nabi Azad as G-23 group pushes for ‘inclusive leadership’ after poll drubbing

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Azad said, “The meeting with Sonia Gandhi was good. All members of the Congress party decided unanimously that she (Sonia) should continue as the president; we just had some suggestions that were shared.”

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“The Working Committee was asked for suggestions on the reasons for the defeat in the five states. The discussion was held to fight unitedly in the forthcoming Assembly elections to defeat the opposition parties,” Azad was quoted as saying by ANI.

On Wednesday, some leaders of the Congress’s ‘Group of 23’ had met at the residence of Azad over dinner to work out the grouping’s future strategy and discuss the party’s poll debacle in the just-concluded assembly polls.

Following the meeting, they issued a statement which read: “We the… members of the Congress party met to deliberate on the demoralising outcome of the recent results of the Assembly elections and the constant exodus of both our workers and leaders. We believe that the only way forward is for the Congress party to adopt the model of collective and inclusive leadership and decision-making at all levels.”

On Thursday, former party president Rahul Gandhi met former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda — his first meeting with a G-23 leader after the Assembly poll rout which has deepened the schism.

The dissident G-23 group had written to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking sweeping changes in the party.

In the wake of the party’s rout in the Assembly elections, Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday asked the chiefs of the five state units — Ajay Kumar Lallu in Uttar Pradesh, Navjot Singh Sidhu in Punjab, Ganesh Godiyal in Uttarakhand, Girish Chodankar in Goa and Nameirakpam Loken Singh in Manipur — to resign.

A day earlier, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal said it was time for the Gandhis to step aside from the leadership role and give some other person a chance. The comments came a day after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) met to introspect its defeat in the Assembly elections in five states and decided that Sonia Gandhi will continue as the party president till at least August-September, when elections for the Congress president are scheduled to take place.