The Congress G-23 or group of dissident leaders are meeting at Ghulam Nabi Azad's home amid calls for organisational changes after the party's decimation in recent state elections.
The leaders at the meeting are Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, Bhupinder Hooda, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Akhilesh Prasad Singh, Prithviraj Chavan, PJ Kurien, Mani Shankar Aiyer, Kuldeep Sharma and Raj Babbar.
Sources say the meeting was first called at Kapil Sibal's home but the setting was changed because many leaders were "uncomfortable" after his open attack on the Gandhis.
Kapil Sibal, whose attacks on the leadership have been getting progressively bolder and sharper over the years, had said it was time for the Gandhis to step aside and let someone else head the Congress.
"The leadership is in cuckoo land...I want a 'Sab ki Congress'. Some want a 'Ghar ki Congress'," Mr Sibal had told the Indian Express.
Mr Sibal's comment followed a Congress Working Committee election post-mortem on Sunday, which ended with the party reaffirming Sonia Gandhi's leadership and asking her to make organisational changes.
Sonia Gandhi, addressing leaders at that meeting, had offered her resignation as well as those of her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chaudhury confirmed. But this was unanimously rejected by Congress leaders, he said.
AdvertisementAfter serial election defeats, the G-23 or a group of 23 "dissident" leaders, were the first to write to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 calling for sweeping organisational changes, a "full-time and visible leadership" and collective decision-making.
But they were slammed and isolated by Gandhi loyalists in the party.
AdvertisementA few leaders of the G-23 had met on the day of results in five states, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Goa and Manipur.
The Congress lost Punjab to Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and failed in its attempt at a comeback in Goa, Uttaranchal and Manipur. In UP, it was at the bottom.
