Bhupinder Hooda meets Rahul Gandhi, then meets Ghulam Nabi Azad; parleys begin on boosting Congress

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 17

A day after 18 senior Congress leaders including G-23 veterans and five former chief ministers sought collective leadership and decision making processes in the party, parleys on the way forward began on Thursday.

A prominent G-23 leader and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had a meeting with former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and soon after that, Hooda met Azad at the latter's residence.

Hooda and Azad were in discussions for a long time after the noon meeting Hooda had with Rahul Gandhi.

Sources said Azad and Sonia Gandhi spoke on the phone yesterday on the G-23 meeting that took place. Azad apprised Gandhi of the intentions of the group to strengthen the party.

"No one at the meeting spoke of leaving the Congress. We all said that Congress needs to be strengthened to oppose the BJP and that the only way forward for that was collective leadership and decision making for which mechanisms have to be created. Business as usual has decimated the party and until we take a hard look at the way forward, the party will get nowhere and may shrink further in 2024. No one wants that," a leader who attended yesterday's meeting said, adding that they would remain engaged with Sonia on the issue.

The leaders at yesterday's meeting are learnt to have questioned several decisions taken in the run up to assembly elections including the announcement of Charanjit Singh Channi as the CM face in Punjab and the allocation of 40 per cent tickets to women in UP.

"The issue is not the nature of these decisions. The issue is who made these decisions. The CWC did not. Also, how did Rahul Gandhi announce the CM face in Punjab? Rahul Gandhi is not the party president,' said another leader who was at the meeting yesterday. 

The sources said the G-23 is in favour of complete overhaul of all state units and not just five state units where the party just lost elections.

"Resignations of all state chiefs need to be sought and effective leadership put in place. We have more elections coming up soon," said a leader.

It is learnt that Gandhis have appointed intermediaries to engage the G-23 veterans, among them Acharya Pramod Krishan from UP, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and former Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijay Singh.

The intermediaries are in touch with the top G-23 leaders.

The meeting between Rahul and Hooda is being viewed as a step forward by Sonia Gandhi to engage the leaders who met yesterday to seek urgent party revamp.

G-23 sources added that the appointment of five observers by Sonia yesterday including Ajay Maken in Punjab did not inspire confidence.

They are the ones who oversaw the decimation of the party in these states; this is the problem with decision making, said a senior G-23 leader.

Maken was AICC screening committee chairman for the selection of Punjab candidates.

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