Key G23 members meet Azad, set off speculation in Congress

Days after the resignation of veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad from the Congress, party leaders and key members of the G20 faction, Anand Sharma, Prithviraj Chavan and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, met Azad on Tuesday. Amid speculations about the meeting centering around similar exits in near future, Chavan denied any such links, writes ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri.

New Delhi: There were a lot of speculations in Congress circles after three key members of the G23, Anand Sharma, Prithviraj Chavan, and Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday met veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad, who had resigned on August 26. The meeting assumed significance as it was assumed that after the exit of Azad, who had spent around 50 years in the party, more senior leaders would follow suit.

The meeting came a day after Azad said he will float a new party, and on a day several important leaders resigned from the J&K Congress in support of the veteran. “It was just a courtesy call. I had spoken to Azadji over the phone on the day he had resigned from the party. Today, I met him at his residence,” Chavan, a former Maharashtra chief minister, told ETV Bharat.

The former chief minister refused to comment on the contents of Azad’s resignation letter in which he blamed Rahul Gandhi for the party’s decline. “Personally, I am saddened by his exit,” said Chavan. In August 2020, Azad had led the so-called dissenters when around 23 senior Congress leaders wrote a letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi urging her to hold internal polls for all party posts so that a full-time and visible party president could be elected and revamp the organization thoroughly to prepare for the future challenges.

Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, former deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda were signatories to the letter. “I thank the Congress president for holding the internal party elections, including for the post of the party president. We had demanded the same in 2020. It is good that she took that decision,” Chavan said.

After their 2020 letter, the G23 leaders faced flak from the Gandhi family loyalists who had targeted them at a Congress Working Committee meeting saying that their action was tantamount to questioning the authority of the Gandhi family.

Later, Sonia Gandhi had reached out to the G23 and heard the views of some key leaders for five hours in a specially convened meeting at her residence. She had then promised to look into the issues raised by the G23, who had defended themselves saying they only wanted to restrengthen the party and were not raising a rebellion.

The Maratha leader refused to comment over the debate on whether a Gandhi or a non-Gandhi should become the next Congress president after a revised schedule was announced on Sunday. “The election schedule has been announced. I hope the new president will work to revive the party,” said Chavan.

On the challenges facing the party, Chavan said through a brainstorming session was held at Udaipur in May, the party still needed to take many steps. The Congress veteran welcomed the nationwide Bharat Jodo Yatra saying, “any agitational programmes bring benefit to the party.”

Anand Sharma had recently resigned from a party panel for the coming Himachal Pradesh polls saying he was not being consulted. Hooda, the leader of the opposition in Haryana, has been tasked with winning the state back for Congress.