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After poll defeat, G-23 to push for party overhaul at CWC meet
The leaders, however, indicated that they would not hold Congress leader Rahul Gandhi or any individual responsible for the election defeat but look at systemic changes.
Upset over its poll debacle in the recently held assembly elections in five states, the Congress’s group of 23 leaders (G-23) is set to push for a more democratic process in decision making and an overhaul in the organisation at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting next week, people familiar with the matter said.
The leaders, some of whom met at their colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad’s residence here on Friday, however, indicated that they would not hold Congress leader Rahul Gandhi or any individual responsible for the election defeat but look at systemic changes.
Several leaders, including Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda and Akhilesh Prasad Singh who attended the meeting, also suggested hearing the proposals of their colleagues related to the party’s revival at the upcoming CWC meet.
“We want to avoid a knee-jerk reaction. Let us first hear the responses in the CWC. We don’t hold any individual responsible. But we also heard that the party would be led by a non-Gandhi leader,” one of the leaders cited above said, referring to Gandhi’s remarks in the CWC after he stepped down from the Congress president’s post in 2019 to make way for a new president.
The poll results came as another jolt to Congress as it failed to make a mark in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, and failed to retain Punjab. While the Aam Aadmi Party stormed to power in Punjab, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the remaining four states.
“We lost the elections but what is more alarming is that in Punjab, the voters opted for an alternative to the Congress and supported the AAP,” a G-23 leader said on condition of anonymity.
The G-23 leaders have been seeking changes within the Congress organisation, ever since they sent a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi calling for sweeping changes, from top to bottom, in 2019.
However, their efforts were met with stiff opposition from Gandhi loyalists who launched a counter attack on them.
A second party leader said Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala’s statement on Thursday, that “in their lust for power, some people are chopping off the branches of the same tree on which they are sitting”, was not taken lightly by the G-23 leaders. “He tried to attack us. We will raise it in the CWC meeting,” the leader said, wishing not to be named.
The Congress’s organisational elections are due in less than seven months where a large section of the party is likely to seek Gandhi’s return as president.
G-23 leaders admitted that while they would like to see a non-Gandhi party chief, it would not be possible to resist if Gandhi chose to return at the helm of affairs.
Friday’s meeting was termed as an informal meeting by party leaders who had also gathered to greet Azad, whose birthday was on March 7.
