After G-23 assembly, Rahul Gandhi meets Congress veteran Bhupinder Singh Hooda

By PTI

NEW DELHI: A day after the Group of 23 pitched for an “inclusive and collective leadership” within the Congress, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, one in every of its members, Thursday met Rahul Gandhi and the 2 leaders had been learnt to have mentioned a revamp of the occasion organisation, a key demand of the dissenters.

The assembly is being seen as an try by the Gandhi household to achieve out to the G-23, which has proven indicators of accelerating aggression on the management difficulty after Congress’s abject loss within the meeting elections in 5 states.

During the assembly that lasted round an hour and half, the they deliberated on the occasion’s defeat in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa, sources stated.

Gandhi, a former Congress president, had referred to as Hooda for a dialogue on the political state of affairs in Haryana.

However, amid calls by a piece of Gandhi household loyalists for motion in opposition to G-23 chief Kapil Sibal, who not too long ago stated the Gandhis ought to step apart and pave the best way for another person to take over the reins of the occasion, Hooda is learnt to have conveyed to Rahul Gandhi that such a step shall be unacceptable to the grouping as Sibal had solely spoken about strengthening the Congress.

#UPDATE | Congress chief Kapil Sibal leaves from the residence of occasion chief Ghulam Nabi Azad. He had arrived at his residence earlier this night.

Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Anand Sharma have additionally arrived on the residence of Ghulam Nabi Azad. pic.twitter.com/oazD4NEufJ

— ANI (@ANI) March 17, 2022

The G-23 has been persistently searching for a restructuring of the organisation because it first wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in 2020 about it after of a string of electoral losses and the occasion’s diminishing clout.

After the assembly, Hooda, a former chief minister of Haryana, visited Ghulam Nabi Azad, the casual chief of the grouping, on the latter’s residence.

Hooda and Azad had been learnt to have mentioned “concrete proposals”, the small print of which weren’t instantly identified, to strengthen the Congress.

The G-23 had made a powerful pitch for “collective leadership” at its assembly right here on Wednesday.

Deputy Leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha and one other G-23 chief Anand Sharma additionally joined Hooda at Azad’s residence the place they mentioned the result of his assembly with Rahul Gandhi.

Later within the night, Sibal additionally met Azad on the latter’s residence.

The grouping had, in an announcement on Wednesday, stated the “only way forward for the Congress was to adopt a model of inclusive and collective leadership and decision making at all levels.” They insisted they need to strengthen the Congress and “not undermine it in any way.”

Rahul Gandhi’s assembly with Hooda is important within the context of the G-23 assertion and the telephonic dialog Azad had with Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday. Sonia Gandhi had reached out to Azad forward of the G-23 assembly. Sources stated Azad is prone to meet Sonia Gandhi with the proposals quickly and make a case for course correction within the occasion.