E-Paper
Day after G-23 meet, Rahul talks to Hooda; Haryana veteran then visits Azad's home
The meeting comes a day after Hooda attended a meeting of dissenting Congress leaders at the residence of Ghulam Nabi Azad where they discussed the Congress’ disastrous performance in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met leader of Opposition in the Haryana Assembly and party veteran Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday. The meeting comes a day after Hooda attended a meeting of dissenting Congress leaders at the residence of Ghulam Nabi Azad where they discussed the Congress’ disastrous performance in the recently concluded Assembly elections in the five states and called an overall revamping of the party as the “only way forward”.
The dissenting leaders are commonly referred to as G-23 or Group of 23 and include party veterans Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, Raj Babbar, Sandeep Dixit and some others. The leaders have been demanding organisational overhaul to revive the grand old party.
According to a PTI report, Hooda, the former chief minister of Haryana, visited Azad at his residence after meeting Gandhi.
Also read | ‘Kahan ke neta hain…’: Kapil Sibal on Congress’s firing line for criticising Gandhi leadership
Hooda and Azad discussed concrete proposals to strengthen the Congress and ensure collective leadership and decision making as demanded by the grouping in a joint statement issued late on Wednesday.
The report, quoting sources, said Sharma, who is the deputy Leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha, also joined Hooda at Azad's residence on Thursday.
According to reports, Azad is likely to meet Sonia Gandhi with proposals soon and discuss course correction within the party. Azad is also said to have had a conversation with Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday to convey the intentions of the meeting at his residence.
Wednesday’s meeting came amid an open war of words among Congress functionaries following Sunday’s Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting wherein Sonia Gandhi had offered to resign in the aftermath of the poll debacle, but it was unanimously rejected by her colleagues.
