Congress dissenters meet; say ready for long haul in ‘party interest’

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 24

The signatories to the explosive letter that led to the Monday CWC meeting met at the residence of Nabi Azad Ghulam, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, to discuss the outcome of their attempts, signalled they were ready for a long haul to ensure organisational reforms needed to make the Congress battle-ready.

To start with, the signatories that include CWC members Azad, Anand Sharma, Mukul Wasnik and Jitin Prasada and others namely ex-minister Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor, took note of the fact that the CWC, in an unprecedented move today, “took note of their letter and discussed it in detail”.

Normally the party brooks no opposition.

The CWC resolution, however, takes note of the letter which Azad read out in the meeting today, setting the stage for a heated debate that saw an impassioned appeal from Wasnik who had hard decisions to revitalise the party.

Signatories said that in normal circumstances, the CWC would never have allowed participation of dissenters in the CWC meet let alone take note of a dissent letter.

There are ample recent examples of the party suspending leaders for out-of-line remarks.

But today, the CWC members, who are signatories to the letter, were allowed to attend the CWC meet and also raise their issues.

A signatory said it was on account of their insistence that the CWC resolution today mentioned that an AICC session would be held soon as circumstances permit, and the process of finding a full-time party president will be rolled out.

“We are determined to fight for the reforms we mentioned in our letter. Those are genuine demands including the CWC elections, the constitution of the Parliamentary Board and elections to the central election committee,” a leader said adding that the mention by Sonia Gandhi herself that her continuation couldn’t be open-ended is signal enough that the AICC session would be held as early as possible to elect the new chief.

“We will take it from there,” said an ex-minister who signed the pro-reform letter.