New Delhi: Four months after the party president Sonia Gandhi has finally agreed to meet some of the 23-letter writers, on Saturday, at her residence.
While it has been considered as one of the crucial meetings, Congress has said on record that after the announcement of elections for new party president, there are "no internal issues of dissensions are pending".
This will be the first meeting where Sonia Gandhi will meet the party leaders face-to-face, months after the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic. In August, a group of 23 leaders wrote a letter to the party President, after not getting a time or chance to meet her, demanding organizational changes and an overhaul in the party structure.
Due to her illness, she even went to Goa, on the advice of her doctors to avoid the air pollution of the national capital. After returning from there on December 6, she decided to physically meet senior leaders to formulate the party's strategy on the current political scenario. Surprisingly, some of the letter writers have also been invited for the meeting.
When asked about the matter, Congress General Secretary and Chief Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "On account of COVID protocols, Congress president was unable to physically meet on many issues for a considerable amount of time. She has decided that starting from tomorrow and over a period of next fortnight, she is going to meet and decide on various organisational issues."
"This is not a meet of any specific group of leaders. This is not a meat of any dissenters or rebels because we consider each worker of Congress party as a part of our family. Addressing the issues buy some of the senior leaders, Congress party has already decided to hold the elections for the post of Indian National Congress," he further explained.
The list of leaders who'll meet Sonia Gandhi tomorrow includes Dr Manmohan Singh, AK Antony, P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor, KC Venugopal, Pawan Bansal, Bhupinder Hooda, Kamal Nath, Ashok Gehlot, Prithviraj Chavan, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi.
As per the sources, Madhya Pradesh's former Chief Minister Kamal Nath will be mediating from the side of dissenters as he played a vital role in persuading the Gandhis to meet the letter writers. However, the party has denied having a "dissent" within and said that all the concerns of letter writers were addressed when the announcement of elections for new President was made during CWC meet.
"All the issues stood resolved with the announcement of next elections for Congress President. So there are no internal issues of dissensions that are pending in the party of any nature. BJP continues to sometimes propagate such insinuations which our leaders do not believe in, including those who have written the letter," said Surjewala.
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The Congress leader also made it clear that the majority of the party members want Rahul Gandhi to return to the post of President. However, Rahul Gandhi would give his name for nomination is yet to be clear.
Surjewala stated, "The President would be chosen by the electoral college of the Congress party. It is a belief of 99.9% of Congress leaders and workers that Rahul Gandhi is the right person to lead the party and to take on the Modi Government. He is perhaps among the rare brand of leaders who have fearlessly questioned the entire people policy of Modi Government, endearing himself to ordinary Indians."
The election body of Congress is preparing the list of AICC members, as the party has even sought advice from block and district level for suitable candidates at top posts. After these formalities will be completed, the Congress Working Committee will decide the dates for elections.
