In an apparent attempt to keep dissenters in the party in check, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has appointed several leaders to new positions in the party. This comes following the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting early this week after 23 party leaders wrote a letter to the party chief expressing concern about the state of affairs and demanding appointment of a full-time president.
Sonia, who continues to be the interim chief of the Congress, appointed Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi as deputy to legislature party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Ludhiana MP Ravneet Singh Bittu as the whip.
Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari, another dissident and a signatory of the letter to Sonia has been downgraded despite being much senior to Gogoi in the party. Also ignored was Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, one of the signatories.
“Both Tewari and Tharoor have lost out because they were signatories to the letter,” said a party leader.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the signatory of the letter to Sonia, and AlCC general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal, who made his debut in the Upper House recently, have been made part of the new five-member decision-making group. Both Gogoi and Venugopal are considered close to former party chief Rahul Gandhi.
Jairam Ramesh has been appointed the Congress’ chief whip in the Rajya Sabha. The five-member group in the Rajya Sabha includes Azad, Venugopal, Anand Sharma, Ahmed Patel and Ramesh.
The move to constitute a five-member group in the Rajya Sabha is also seen as an attempt to sideline Azad and Sharma.
Raising his voice one more time against the constant decline of Congress, Azad reiterated to a TV news agency, that the party must hold elections to the CWC and key organisational posts of State chiefs lest it continues to “sit in the Opposition for the next 50 years”.
In the Lok Sabha, a similar five-member group has been formed, comprising Chowdhury, Gogoi, chief whip K Suresh, Bittu and Manickam Tagore, who is close to Rahul.
“As chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, I have decided to constitute the groups to facilitate and ensure the effective functioning of our party in both Houses of Parliament. These groups will meet daily during the session and can meet during the inter-session periods as well where Parliament issues are concerned. Joint meetings can be convened as and when needed,” Sonia stated in her announcements after affecting the changes.
Two days ago Jairam was appointed as convener of the 5-member committee to take note of key ordinances of the Government. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Digvijay Singh, Dr Amar Singh and Gaurav Gogoi are its other members.
The letter written by 23 Congress leaders to Sonia Gandhi said there has been a “steady decline of the party”, as witnessed in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, but no “honest introspection” has been done to analyse the reasons for these massive defeats.
The letter added that Congress workers on the ground are demoralised because of the uncertainty over the leadership. The Congress is yet to appoint a full-time president since Rahul resigned following the 2019 Lok Sabha election debacle.