Congress meeting on March 26 to discuss current political situation, organizational elections

Image courtesy: ANI

New Delhi: Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi will be presiding over a meeting with the party's general secretaries and state in-charges on 26th March to discuss the current political situation. 

The meeting will be held at party headquarters. All India Congress Committee General Secretaries and in-charges will be present at the meeting which will be chaired by General Secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal.

The Agenda for the meeting includes, "Special Membership Drive, Organizational Elections and Planning agitational programmes. The so-called G-23 leaders of the Congress party has been pushing internal reforms including organizational elections in the party." 

On Tuesday afternoon, Sonia Gandhi met G23 leaders Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari and Vivek Tankha at her residence in New Delhi as part of her efforts to resolve the deepening rift within the party after the poll rout of Congress in fives states in the recently concluded Assembly elections. 

Citing sources, the ANI report said that the Congress leaders in the meeting pointed out a lack of collective leadership in the decision-making process.

As G-23 leaders are pressing for organizational changes, the Congress chief is learnt to have said that the requisite measures will be taken after the August-September elections for party president. 

Quoting Sonia, sources are quoted by ANI as saying "By August-September, the election for party`s president will be over. Focus on that. I can make changes only to a certain extent by then."

Further, sources reportedly said that neither the Gandhi family nor the G-23 leaders mentioned Kapil Sibal, who had questioned the party`s leadership, during the meeting. The G23 members have been raising the issue of a few leaders in the party taking every decision while their accountability is not being fixed. 

The three Congress leaders told Sonia Gandhi that the general secretaries are making decisions in the name of Rahul Gandhi while accusing them for the poll rout. 

"Who will take responsibility for the consequences of decisions being taken by a few in the party? The party cannot be handed over to a few people. Sonia Gandhi said that she will consider the issues raised by the party leaders in the meeting," sources are quoted as saying. 

The G23 leaders are reportedly seen not happy with the party leaders including Randeep Surjewala, Ajay Maken and KC Venugopal, the general secretaries of Congress, and they have also demanded "collective and inclusive" leadership. 

Notably, Gandhi`s meeting with more G-23 leaders is seen as an attempt to bridge the gap between the disgruntled bloc and the Congress leadership. 

On March 18, veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad met Sonia Gandhi after the Congress faced a debacle in five states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand Goa, Manipur and Punjab that recently went to the polls.

Notably, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are due for assembly polls later this year. 

(With ANI Inputs)