Team News Riveting
Even as senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is touring southern states to strengthen the party, the G-23 or the group of 23 dissenting leaders met in Jammu and alleged organisation “getting weaker”.
They were raising their voice for the betterment of the party, the leaders sporting saffron headgear said.
“The truth is that we see the Congress party getting weak. That is why we have gathered here. We had gathered together earlier too and we have to strengthen the party together,” Kapil Sibal said at the ‘Shanti Sammelan’ event here. Besides Sibal, Anand Sharma along with former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Raj Babbar and Vivek Tankha among other Congress leaders were present at the event organised by former Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Anand Sharma who addressed the ‘Shanti Sammelan’ said that “Congress has weakened in the last decade.” “Our voice is for the betterment of the party. It should be strengthened everywhere once again. The new generation should connect (to party). We have seen good days of Congress. We do not want to see it weakening as we become older,” he said.
Azad is the senior-most member among the 23 leaders, who had expressed dissent with the functioning of the Congress party and had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi in August last year.
The ‘Shanti Sammelan’ event has been organised days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s “North-South” remark, which has led to a controversy over the past few days. The event is being held at a time when Rahul Gandhi is campaigning in Tamil Nadu.
Sibbal said that the leaders who have gathered in Jammu were saddened after realising that former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad is “being freed from Parliament” by the Congress party.
Meanwhile, Azad said, “I have retired from Rajya Sabha but not retired from politics and I have not retired from Parliament for the first time.”
