Sonia Gandhi's toughest political battle when Cong leaders wrote to her

Helming the grand old party of India since 1998 Congress chief Sonia Gandhi faced her toughest political battle in 2020 when a group of 23 party leaders wrote to her to demand sweeping internal reforms including organisational electionsIn the letter the party leaders said that the leadership should be effective and visible on the groundThe leaders were miffed with the party for reducing itself to holding only press conferences and posting tweets said a signatory to the letter on the condition of anonymityThey said that the party leadership should take everybody along and put up a serious challenge to the BJP The signatories included party veterans Ghulam Nabi Azad Anand Sharma former Chief Ministers Bhupinder Singh Hooda Veerappa Moily Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Prithviraj Chavan said party sourcesThe letter lamented that the party is declining and unable to confront the rise of the BJP in the countryIn a subsequent Congress Working Committee CWC meeting in August her loyalists turned the tables on dissenters as the highest decisionmaking body of the party decided that Sonia Gandhi will continue as interim party chief till a new President was elected and that the next CWC meeting will be called in six monthsThat CWC meet started with Sonia offering to quit and Rahul Gandhi questioning the timing of the letterParty spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala had said The CWC authorises the Congress President to effect necessary organisational changes that she may deem appropriate to take on the challenges listed above In the light of the above deliberations and conclusions the CWC unanimously requests Sonia Gandhi to continue to lead the Indian National Congress until such time as circumstances will permit and an AICC session to be convenedAfter the meeting Sonia Gandhi made changes in the organisation and many dissenter were adjusted A Central Election Committee was formed to undertake the organisational election processOn December 19 Sonia Gandhi was compelled to call a meeting of senior party leaders including dissenters and listen to their grievancesSources in the dissenters camp said that it was only a icebreaker as the party has to address issues raised by them in their letter but pointed out that the meeting was cordialDuring the meeting Sonia maintained that the party is family but a chorus for Rahul Gandhi as party President received a cold response from the dissenting group Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan asked for internal party elections from top to bottom which was one of the primary demands made in the letterRahul Gandhi said that we are not here to discuss who will be Congress President but to focus on the party He said that everyone was dear to him as all had been his late father Rajiv Gandhis friends Azad endorsed Rahuls views but suggestions were made to organise a Chintan Shivir or brainstorming session in the partyThe leaders also pointed to the loss in Bihar and Gujarat elections Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said that it was time to hit the streets with an agenda and the time of memorandum and statements were overCongress leaders meeting with Sonia Gandhi ended after almost five hours and sources said nobody in the meeting objected to Rahul Gandhis name for party chiefs position once againNo one has a problem with Rahul Gandhi and this is not just for today Everybody said that we need Rahul Gandhis leadership We must not fall into the trap of other people who are trying to distract the partys agenda senior party leader Pawan Kumar Bansal said after emerging out of the muchawaited meeting ever since the 23 leaders shot off a letter to Sonia Gandhi in AugustBut the pushes and pulls within the opposition party have not subsided yet as dissenters want organisational reforms including party elections from CWC down to the grassroots level So the last word on the issues bedevilling the party remains to be saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever