NEW DELHI: The G-23 seems to have changed gears on the prickly demand for collective leadership with Ghulam Nabi Azad reportedly telling Sonia Gandhi that the ginger group is not questioning her leadership but she should revamp the party without any loss of time.
The leadership was not in question and ‘‘nobody has said that Mrs Gandhi should quit,’’ Azad told a news portal. Instead, the focus was on closing ranks in the ‘united’ fight against the BJP during the upcoming elections and carrying out internal reforms which alone can check the leadership inertia. A step in this direction would be the organisational elections in August.
The G-23 group had, in a statement on Wednesday, said the "only way forward for the Congress was to adopt a model of inclusive and collective leadership and decision making at all levels." Azad and other dissidents have held a series of meetings since Wednesday. Azad insists his group has not changed its goalpost as it has been pressing for restructuring of the organisation since it first wrote to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 after a string of electoral losses.
The meeting at 10 Janpath residence of Sonia Gandhi came two days after a show of strength by the ‘dissident’ group. On Thursday, former party president Rahul Gandhi had met former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Sonia's meeting with Azad and Rahul’s with Hooda are seen as part of a wider effort by the family to reach out to the G-23 group.
However, some of the G-23 leaders are not satisfied with the party high command’s sacking of five state presidents as they insist that the responsibility should be fixed on the top leadership. At the last CWC meet, party leaders had turned down Sonia Gandhi's offer to step down from all posts along with her children.
"It was a good meeting with the Congress President. It may be news for you but it was a regular, usual meeting," Azad said, playing down any talk of disillusionment within the party.
Earlier this week, Sonia Gandhi reportedly spoke twice on the phone to Ghulam Nabi Azad, even as the G-23 held back-to-back meetings to discuss an overhaul of the party organisation. Azad has been thus far increasingly outspoken on the leadership issue in the Congress.
Asked about what changes he, as a G-23 leader, had suggested to Sonia Gandhi, Azad told a news portal, “Congress is one party and she [Sonia Gandhi] is the president, the rest of us are leaders. The recommendations made internally cannot be shared publically.”
