Dissenters can meet Sonia Gandhi with their grievances: Congress

As murmurs of dissent continue a week after the meeting of the Congress Working Committee, Congress on Thursday advised those still holding a grudge against the leadership to meet party chief Sonia Gandhi.

The message came amid remarks by ‘dissenters’ Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma insisting that the concerns voiced by them in the letter to the Congress president were yet to be addressed by the leadership.

“Sonia Gandhi has heard all the voices of dissent and said that she was committed to take everybody along. But, still, if somebody has a grievance they can go and talk to the Congress president,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

A group of 23 Congress leaders, including Azad, Sharma and Sibal, has written to the Congress president last month seeking sweeping changes in the party organisation and calling for internal elections if the party has to remain relevant in the face of an aggressive BJP.

There also appeared to be a divide in the group of 23 leaders with some heeding to the party chief’s call of letting bygones be bygones and moving ahead. Leaders such as Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Shashi Tharoor, Akhilesh Singh, Jitin Prasada had reposed faith in the leadership of Gandhi and sought to put an end to the public debate.

A section of the 23 leaders is unhappy that the small committee to assist the Congress president in the day-to-day functioning of the party has not been constituted yet.

However, a section of the leadership dismissed the talk of a “small committee”, pointing out that the CWC had “unanimously resolved to strengthen the hands of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in every possible way.”

The CWC had also authorised the Congress president to effect the “necessary organisational changes” that she may deem appropriate to take on the emerging challenges.