Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad arrives to meet party president Sonia Gandhi, talks over organisational overhaul likely

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday reached 10, Janpath to meet party president Sonia Gandhi.

Azad, the informal leader of the G-23, had hosted the rebel Congress leaders twice in two days at his residence to discuss "concrete proposals" to strengthen the grand old party. This came days after a meeting of Congress Working Committee (CWC) in which the party's abysmal performance in the recently held Assembly polls in five states was termed as a "cause of serious concern".

G-23 leaders, who have been calling for sweeping reforms in the party, met on Wednesday to discuss the party's debacle in the recently concluded Assembly elections in five states - Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Goa. Party leaders Kapil Sibal, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, Mani Shankar Aiyar, PJ Kurien, Preneet Kaur, Sandeep Dikshit and Raj Babbar were among those present.

After the first meeting meeting on Wednesday, the G-23 leaders issued a joint statement. It read, "We the following members of the Congress Party met to deliberate on the demoralizing 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 to adopt the model of collective and inclusive leadership and decision making at all levels," it added.

"In order to oppose the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it is necessary to strengthen the Congress Party. We demand the Congress party to initiate dialogue with other likeminded forces to create a platform to pave the way for a credible alternative for 2024 and the next steps in this regard will be announced soon," it said.

As per the statement, the meeting was held in the knowledge of party chief Sonia Gandhi and "she was informed of the meeting when Azad and the party chief had a telephonic conversation on Tuesday to have a meeting on Thursday." The statement said that the meeting was called to inform the rest of the members about the discussion held in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and to decide on a further strategy.

Later on Thurdsay, former Haryana Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda met Rahul Gandhi . Hooda, a G-23 leader, was the first to reach out to the Congress high command after the faction's meeting at Azad's residence.

According to reports, Rahul Gandhi asked Hooda about the meeting of the G-23 leaders and their resolution. Hooda suggested elections of the CWC and taking future decisions through discussions only in CWC as this was also mentioned by the G-23 group.

The former Haryana chief minister, in the meeting with Rahul Gandhi, also sought the appointment of an experienced person, who understands the politics of North India and is well verse with Hindi, after removing party General Secretary KC Venugopal from his post, sources told news agency ANI.

Hooda also sought clarity over who is making the decisions in the party and said that leaders get to know about big decisions of the party from the newspapers, highlighting the need to make decisions collectively.

Hooda said that the G-23 leaders have not done any "anti-party activities" adding that the meeting of faction was held after informing Sonia Gandhi.

Meanwhile, after Gandhi and Hooda's meet, the G-23 leaders met again at Azad's residence.

(With ANI inputs)