Days after accusing the G-23 leaders of attempting to break the Congress, senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said Ghulam Nabi Azad meeting Sonia Gandhi is a welcome move as the latter said he wants to strengthen the party.
In the meantime, a separate meeting of the G-23 and its now expanded form is being planned before the proposed CWC followed by a Chintan Shivir later next month.
Sources also said, party’s former chief Rahul Gandhi, who has been in the line of fire over the party’s successive defeats, is also scheduled to meet Azad in a day or two to take forward the agenda of change. Rahul has already met another G-23 member Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Azad met Sonia on the occasion of Holi festivities after which he said leadership change is not an issue as the Congress Working Committee unanimously decided that she should continue as party chief till internal polls.Azad told reporters that he gave her suggestions to strengthen the party and held a discussion on how to take on rivals "unitedly" in the forthcoming assembly polls.
For his part, Kharge said: "We have always wanted that everyone should come together to strengthen the party. We are all responsible. Only taking the name of the Gandhi family is not right. Many people said that at the Congress Working Committee meet."
Kharge had earlier criticised sections of leaders including Azad who have been blaming the Gandhi family for the Congress' electoral debacles.
"Ghulam Nabi Azad has been in the party for years. He knows everything, so he talked to signatories there. He met Sonia Gandhi. He has spoken about keeping the party together. It's a good sign. He said that he wants to strengthen the party. It is a welcome stand," he said.
Azad meeting Sonia came days after the Group of 23 pitched for an "inclusive and collective leadership" in the Congress. Former Union Minister and one of the G=23 members, Kapil Sibal had said recently that the Gandhis should step aside and pave the way for someone else to take over the reins of the party.
The G-23 has been persistently seeking a restructuring of the organisation since it first wrote to Sonia in 2020 after a string of electoral losses.
The grouping had, in a statement on Wednesday, said, "The only way forward for the Congress was to adopt a model of inclusive and collective leadership and decision-making at all levels." The group insisted they want to strengthen the Congress and "not to undermine it in any way".