Election Result: After Congress' Poll Debacle, Disgruntled G-23 To Seek Reforms At CWC Meet

Earlier in 2020, the rebel group had written to the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi demanding sweeping reforms in the Congress, including a full-time party chief. 

New Delhi: After the recent poll debacle in the assembly elections in five states, the disgruntled group of rebel Congress workers, called G-23, are likely to raise demands on reforms in the party during the next Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting.

G-23 members, including Manish Tewari, Kapil Sibal and Anand Sharma met at the residence of senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, while some others joined online, on Friday.

Although none of the leaders have come out in the public against the party leadership, sources close to news agency ANI said that at Azad’s residence, it was decided that the G-23 members would raise the demand of party reforms in the next CWC meeting.

Earlier in 2020, the rebel group had written to the Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi demanding sweeping reforms in the Congress, including a full-time party chief. 

“Over-centralisation of the organisation and micro-management has always proven to be counter-productive. The party has witnessed a steady decline reflected in successive electoral verdicts in 2014 and 2019, and the reasons were manifold,” the letter read.

However, Sonia had hit back at the rebels saying that they were free to elect a new party president as she didn't want to take up the responsibilities any further.

Batting for reforming the organisational leadership to ‘reignite’ the idea of India, senior party leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday, said, “All of us who believe in @INCIndia are hurting from the results of the recent assembly elections. It is time to reaffirm the idea of India that the Congress has stood for and the positive agenda it offers the nation… And to reform our organisational leadership in a manner that will reignite those ideas and inspire the people. One thing is clear - Change is unavoidable if we need to succeed.”

Before him, Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill had posted, “Loss is a Loss there is no justification to it -let's not sugarcoat it with dialogues like 'vote share', 'lost by small margins' etc etc - Accepting the verdict with humility & Acknowledging failure without any if's & but's is first step to reform.”

It is to be noted that Congress scored very poorly in the assembly polls to Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur, and also lost Punjab, one of the few states that it held, to a relatively new party, AAP, setting the stage for another churning in the grand old party.