New Delhi: After the Congress party faced defeat in all the five recently held assembly elections, a meeting of the Congress Working Committee was called to deliberate over the lacunas which became the reasons for the party's loss. The meeting lasted for over five hours. During the meeting, it was decided that Sonia Gandhi will continue to head the party as there were media reports of Sonia Gandi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi resigning from the key party posts.
The key developments that took place after the poll debacle:
1. Kapil Sibal targets the party leadership saying that Gandhis should step aside and give some other leader a chance to helm the party. "Leadership is in cuckoo land I want a 'Sab ki Congress'. Some want a 'Ghar ki Congress'," Sibal tweeted.
2. Major leaders of the Congress's 'Group of 23' or G-23 meet at the residence of former Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad over dinner to work out the future strategy and discuss the party's poll debacle. Party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said there was a need to "seriously introspect, re-examine, re-think" whether the race for political positions "is undermining the position of the party to an extent where we end up helping the cause of our opposition and where we end up causing loss to the Congress party".
3. The G23 leaders, in a statement issued after the meeting, said that they had met to deliberate on the "demoralizing" outcome of the recent results of the Assembly elections and the "constant exodus of both our workers and leaders".
4. Sonia Gandhi asks the chiefs of the five state units, Navjot Singh Sidhu in Punjab, Ganesh Godiyal in Uttarakhand, Girish Chodankar in Goa, and Nameirakpam Loken Singh in Manipur, Ajay Kumar Lallu in Uttar Pradesh, to resign.
5. Sonia Gandhi engages five senior leaders to assess the post-poll situation in five states and suggest organizational changes following its electoral debacle.
6. The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the top decision-making body of the Congress, holds a crucial meeting in Delhi on March 13. After a four-and-half-hour meeting, the CWC decided that Sonia Gandhi will continue as the party president.
7. Later, Congress dissenters G-23 meet on Wednesday over dinner at senior leader Kapil Sibal's residence and devise a further strategy after the CWC endorsed Sonia Gandhi's leadership.
8. 'Group of 23' again meet at the residence of Ghulam Nabi Azad over dinner on Wednesday. Interestingly, apart from the 'G23' leaders, some others party dissenters also took part in this meeting, who include Manishankar Aiyar and Preneet Kaur. While the meeting lasted for almost four hours, no leader spoke to the media regarding the outcome of this meeting. However, a statement was released by the group of Congress dissenters suggesting the party adopt a model of collective leadership for the preparation of the 2024 general elections.
The statement read, "We the following members of the Congress Party met to deliberate on the demoralizing outcome of the recent results of the Assembly elections and constant exodus of both our workers and leaders. We believe that the only way forward is for the Congress to adopt the model of collective and inclusive leadership and decision making at all levels."
9. Senior Congress leaders have hit out at Sibal that he does not know "ABCD of Congress", and is an outsider who was given everything from the party.
10. Former Haryana Chief Minister and one of the dissidents, Bhupinder Singh Hooda meets Rahul Gandhi at Tughlak lane. The meeting lasted for about 40 minutes and is seen as a reach-out gesture from the party to the members of G-23.
