Sonia meets ‘dissenters’ to salvage Congress
Some senior leaders said that there is an agreement on Rahul Gandhi being given the charge of the party.
Just nine days ahead of the 136th foundation day of Congress, AICC interim president Sonia Gandhi has made a significant effort to save and strengthen the crisis-ridden party. Sonia Gandhi on Saturday held a crucial meeting with senior leaders, including the core group of 23 rebels who wrote a letter in August calling for sweeping organizational changes and flagging a leadership drift, at her residence.
It is, however, difficult to say at this point of time whether her “delayed” efforts will yield any positive result. According to sources, discussions were held to find out the ways aimed at uniting the party. The discussion was also about who should be given the leadership of the Congress and who should succeed Ahmed Patel who passed away recently creating a void. Interestingly, it is for the first time that the AICC general secretary in charge of organisation did not send the letters about the meeting to the leaders concerned. The messages went directly from Sonia Gandhi’s office. Some of the leaders are surprised at not being informed about such a meeting. However, it is said that the leaders who were left out today will be called in the next meeting as Sonia Gandhi will continue to hold such parleys in future. Sources said Sonia Gandhi also held separate meetings with a couple of groups of leaders. Meanwhile, some say that Kamal Nath played a pivotal role in arranging this meeting to thrash out differences.
Sources told The Sunday Guardian that what was of paramount importance in the meeting was whether the team will be the same if Rahul Gandhi is appointed the new Congress president next year. In fact, the existing team is the real bone of contention, as seniors have been complaining that the party has got weakened due to this team which needs to be changed. Actually, the existing team consists of leaders who Rahul Gandhi relies on. So, the question is whether a new face will come up for the leadership role. Apart from the big question of the party’s leadership, the Congress is also facing a ticklish issue of who will succeed Sonia Gandhi as UPA chairperson as she has already hinted at quitting the post. This issue also came up for discussion in the meeting which was also attended by some leaders close to Sonia Gandhi, including Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Several options were discussed. Many were not in favour of giving this post to another party. The option
Sonia Gandhi’s concern is that there should be a strong team if Rahul Gandhi leads the Congress again.
She is, therefore, trying to iron out the differences which have cropped up in the party.
of giving the post of UPA chairperson to a nongandhi was also discussed. But the leader should be one whom the Gandhi family can trust. The relevant names discussed included Manmohan Singh, Kamal Nath, A.K. Antony and Ashok Gehlot. They are all close to the Gandhis. Sources say that Sonia Gandhi may appoint Nath as Ahmed Patel’s successor as he has a good rapport with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as well.
Manmohan Singh and Antony will continue to work like previously. As regards Ashok Gehlot, Gandhi family does not want to take any risk by shifting him out of Rajasthan. But the bigger question is whether Rahul Gandhi accepts the post of party president in the beginning of next year itself or sometime later. Randeep Singh Surjewala’s statement assumes significance, saying that more than 99.99% leaders want Rahul Gandhi to lead the party again. This issue figured in the meeting. There is no denying that Rahul Gandhi can be party chief whenever he wants. But the question is why he is delaying the decision. After resigning as party president, Rahul Gandhi continued to take on the Modi government without being formally appointed as Congress chief, resulting in an unorganized battle. The Group of 23 disgruntled leaders had pointed it out in the letter to Sonia Gandhi, saying that this is not the way to fight a political battle.
What is Sonia Gandhi’s concern is that there should be a strong team if Rahul Gandhi leads the Congress again. She is, therefore, trying to iron out the differences which have cropped up in the party, so that all the key leaders stand strongly and unitedly behind Rahul Gandhi. If all goes well, Rahul Gandhi will take over the party’s charge early next year. After the meeting, some senior leaders said that there is an agreement on Rahul Gandhi being given the charge of the party. They, however, said that more meetings will follow including a brainstorming session “Chintan Baithak”
which will also discuss steps to strengthen the party. Sonia Gandhi would not also favour election for CWC’S 12 slots so as to avoid any chance of infighting. Sonia Gandhi knows well how infighting is growing in Congress which is witnessing a massive decline with every passing day.
After Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh Congress is witnessing some problems, with health minister T. Singh Deo having raised the issue of changing CM as part of terms of rotation every two-and-a-half years. At the same time, the BJP is keeping an eye on the Congress’ infighting leading to growing number of disgruntled leaders. Meanwhile, the leaders who attended the meeting at the 10 Janpath residence of Sonia Gandhi included A.K. Antony, Ashol Gehlot, Ambika Soni, Harish Rawat, P. Chidambaram, Kamal Nath, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Ajay Maken, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Prithviraj Chavan, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor and Bhakta Charan Das.