Team News Riveting
New Delhi, December 19
Congress president Sonia Gandhi Saturday met a group of party leaders who had stirred the political cauldron by writing to her a few months ago suggesting a complete overhaul of the organisation.
This was the first time that Gandhi is meeting Congress leaders in person since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Rahul Gandhi was also present in the meeting besides some of Sonia Gandhi’s close associates.
This was the first effort by the Congress leadership for a reconciliation with those who raised questions over the leadership. The “rebels” who attended the meeting included Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, deputy leader of the party in the upper House Anand Sharma, former chief ministers Bhupinder Singh Hooda, former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan, and MPs Manish Tewari, Vivek Tankha and Shashi Tharoor.
Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and senior leader P Chidambaram are also part of the meeting besides Sonia loyalists are AK Antony, Ambika Soni, Ashok Gehlot and Harish Rawat, besides Pawan Bansal.
Sources said that the discussion included a range of issues that included primarily organisational elections. The Congress has already decided to hold elections for the post of Congress president and that process is underway.
Sonia Gandhi will be meeting a host of other leaders in the coming days, the sources said.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath reportedly played a big part in getting Sonia Gandhi to agree to hear the rebels out. Nath had lost power in Madhya Pradesh in March following senior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia’s defection to the BJP. He had so far kept a distance from the dissenters.
