Sonia Gandhi chairs meeting with top Congress leaders to discuss party future

Congress president Sonia Gandhi held crucial talks with dissenting Congress leaders who wrote to her four months ago urging for changes in the party.

New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi held an important meeting with party's senior leaders on Saturday (December 19, 2020), the talks were the dissenting Congress leaders who wrote to her four months ago urging for changes in the party’s organisation and seeking an effective, full-time leadership.

After the marathon four-hour-long meeting, senior Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal said the discussions centered mainly on strengthening the party, he told reporters.

Bansal said the process for holding organisational polls, including to the party president’s post and the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has already been set in motion and the central election authority (CEA) is working on it.

“There is already an election process in motion. There is an agenda before the party. The CEA is working on it,” he said.

Also, the senior leaders have decided to hold a ‘Chintan Shivir’ (brainstorming session) to discuss the way forward and steps needed to strengthen the party.

Bansal said Sonia Gandhi told the leaders that all of them are a “very big family” and they should strive to strengthen the party. He said Rahul Gandhi also spoke on similar lines.

While, ANI quoted Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan saying, "We discussed the future of the party. It was a constructive meeting in which senior leaders including Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi discussed the current situation of the party and ways to strengthen it."

Congress leaders Ashok Gehlot, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, BS Hooda, Ambika Soni and P Chidambaram were among the 23 leaders at party's Interim President Sonia Gandhi's residence at 10, Janpath.