“Truth Is We See Party Getting Weak”: Congress ‘Dissenters’ In Jammu

New Delhi:

The Congress is “getting weak” and must strengthened, senior occasion chief Kapil Sibal stated at a public occasion in Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, as members of the G-23 – a gaggle of senior leaders who’ve brazenly questioned the Gandhis’ management model – converged to ship a pointy reminder to the occasion’s central management forward of 5 key elections within the subsequent few weeks.

Other than Mr Sibal, the group that took to the stage included former Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Union Minister Anand Sharma, Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha, Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

“The reality is that we see the Congress getting weak. That’s the reason we’ve gathered. We gathered earlier too and we’ve to strengthen the occasion collectively,” Mr Sibal stated.

“Our voice is for the betterment of the occasion. It needs to be strengthened all over the place as soon as once more. The brand new technology ought to join (to occasion). We now have seen the nice days of Congress. We don’t need to see it weakening as we develop into older,” Mr Sharma stated.

Saturday’s assembly additionally comes days after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s controversial comment concerning the distinction between voters in Uttar Pradesh and Kerala triggered a pushback from the BJP, with union ministers accusing the Congress of making an attempt to “divide and rule” India.

“Be it Jammu or Kashmir or Ladakh, we respect all religions, folks and castes. We respect everybody equally… that’s our energy and we’ll proceed with this,” Mr Azad stated, in feedback seen as cancelling Mr Gandhi’s comment and underlining the resolve for change within the Congress.

A senior member of the G-23 advised information company ANI the gathering in J&Okay was a “message to Mr Gandhi”. “We are going to inform the nation that from north to south, India is one,” he stated.

Mr Gandhi’s remark has already drawn guarded criticism from Mr Sibal.

The dissenting Congress leaders’ gathering has met with a cautious response from the occasion, with Abhishek Manu Singhvi urging his colleagues to deal with working in poll-bound states.

“When elections are taking place in 5 states, these leaders may have been in these states to strengthen the Congress… the very best contribution to the Congress trigger is to have interaction in these states,” he stated, earlier than saying that the occasion was, however, “pleased with them”.

“With the best of respect (and) on behalf of the Congress, every of these in Jammu are senior leaders. We’re pleased with them and so are they. We’re a household,” he added.

In August final yr plenty of Congress leaders – Mr Sibal and Mr Azad amongst them – wrote a letter to interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, asking for introspection over continued poor performances in elections, and for “full time” and visual” management to take the occasion ahead.

An irritated Mrs Gandhi – who had solely been cajoled into taking over the submit after Rahul Gandhi stepped down over the Congress’ dismal displaying within the Lok Sabha polls – provided to give up.

In December Mrs Gandhi met the dissenters, and a roadmap of kinds was chalked out. Final month it was determined {that a} new Congress chief can be elected in June, after the forthcoming elections.

Nonetheless, this was after the G-23’s name for quick organisational polls was overruled.

“What is going on in Congress is a transparent violation of settlement at CWC assembly in December final yr… there are not any indicators of any reforms or election,” a senior G-23 chief advised ANI.

Sources quoted by ANI stated Congress management is conscious of the G-23 leaders’ sentiments on this matter and is monitoring the scenario, though it’s “not in a rush to return to any conclusion”.

With enter from ANI