From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi is being checkmated by the G-23 group of rebels to force him to remove somee of his key aides advising him in organising the party, which may result in removal of certain AICC general secretaries and in-charge of the states as also some heads of the departments close to him.
Rebel group’s leader Ghulam Nabi Azad is happy with his talks with Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday as he found her receptible to the suggestions for effecting a large-scale reshuffle of the party after consultations with all shades of the leaders.
Sources in the rebel group said Azad specifically told Sonia that all her want to continue until the fresh organisational elections but his group is opposed to Rahul’s backseat driving in her name and effecting some changes without proper consultations with the senior party leaders. He insisted an interim reshuffle in the party to accommodate the rebel leaders and then hold the organisational elections early to have the collective leadership instead of Rahul and his aides forcing their decisions.
Sonia Gandhi may set up a new mechanism for the decision making such as the Parliamentary Board, accommodating the rebels as Azad told her on Friday that the urgency is to revamp the party and prepare for the next round of Assembly polls, starting with Gujarat later this year.
Rajya Sabha leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, who had taken over the post from Azad, was on Saturday all praise for him in the way he conducted himself in his talks with Sonia Gandhi on Friday. He lauded Azad for positivity in his talks with Sonia since he spoke about keeping the party together, which is a good sign.
“We have always wanted that everyone should come together to strengthen the party and that is the message of Azad, a veteran leader, in his meeting with Soniaji, Kharge said.
Mentioning that blaming the Gandhi family alone is not right for the debacle in the recent Assembly elections in the five states, Kharge said: “Azad has been in the party for years. He knows everything. So he talked to the signatories who dashed of a letter to the Congress President in 2020 and they have talked about keeping the party together.”
No wonder, he said all the members of the Congress Working Committee in its last meeting decided unanimously that she should continue as the president and nobody said she should quit.”
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