New Delhi:
At a meeting of the Congress “G-23” or rebel group last night, leaders ruled out splitting the party for now, but called for the Gandhis to remove their loyalists from key posts to enable a resurrection of India’s oldest party, sources said today.
The party is “too weak” to survive the split, the dissenters reportedly discussed at the meeting held at the home of Ghulam Nabi Azad, a leading member of the G-23 or group of 23 dissenters who had written to Sonia Gandhi two years ago demanding big changes in the Congress, including a leadership overhaul.
Ghulam Nabi Azad is likely to meet with Congress president Sonia Gandhi to deliver the message from the meeting and the rebels’ concern, sources say. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are expected to be at the meeting.
The G-23 met two days after an election post-mortem by the Congress Working Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, on Sunday.
Sonia Gandhi offered to resign at that meeting, along with her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, saying the family was ready for the “sacrifice”. That was “unanimously rejected”, senior Congress leaders said after the meeting.
The Congress announced after the post-mortem – the latest of many over the years – that the party reaffirmed its faith in Sonia Gandhi’s leadership and had asked her to make corrective organisational changes.
