Amid the turmoil in Punjab Congress, and several party leaders quitting to join opposition parties, senior leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday demanded an immediate meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) be convened and wondered who in the party was taking decisions in the absence of a full-time president.
Sibal is also a member of the ‘Group of 23 leaders’ group, he said that the group is “not a Jee Huzur 23” and will continue to put forth the views and will continue to repeat the demands. Meanwhile, Sibal’s comments weren’t welcomed by other party leaders, carrying ‘Get Well Soon Kapil Sibal’ placards and raising slogans against him, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) workers protested outside his Jor Bagh residence, saying they were “hurt” by his remarks.
Congress general secretary Ajay Maken and Chhattisgarh minister T S Singhdeo hit out at Sibal for his remarks Manickam Tagore, a permanent invitee to the CWC, took a swipe at Sibal over his remarks, saying on Twitter, “Symbol of sacrifice Smt Sonia Gandhi ji is the congress president. It’s unfortunate learned people also speak the language of sanghis and help them indirectly. Why?”
After the grand old party- Congress struggled to recuperate post loss in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a group of 23 leaders sought organisational-level changes.
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So, what is the G-23 group?
In August 2020, 23 senior Congress leaders wrote a letter to interim party chief Sonia Gandhi requesting immediate and active leadership, organisational rejig. In the letter, they sought an overhaul within the party in view of frequent failures at Lok Sabha and state elections. The leaders’ demand intensified over time and senior party leaders including Gulam Nabi Azad and Kabil Sibal continued to defy the party’s stand on several occasions.
Who all are part of the G-23 group?
The group’s original members were- Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tiwari, Anand Sharma, PJ Kurien, Renuka Chaudhary, Milind Deora, Mukul Wasnik, Jitin Prasada, Bhupendra Singh Hooda, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, M Veerappa Moily, Prithviraj Chavan, Ajay Singh, Raj Babbar, Arvind Singh Lovely, Kaul Singh Thakur, Kuldeep Sharma, Yoganand Shastri, Sandeep Dixit and Vivek Tankha. Most of these leaders have been union ministers, chief ministers and the party’s state unit chiefs.
Why are G-23 Leaders Demanding Reforms?
Perturbed over several failed performances and loss of 2019 Lok Sabha elections acting as a catalyst, several Congress leaders believed that party-level reforms were need of the hour. Amid the thinning base of the grand-old party, leaders demanded a democratic set up within the national party as it struggled to have a leader, post-Sonia Gandhi’s resignation.
The demands grew stronger post-2019 Lok Sabha polls when the then-party president Rahul Gandhi lost the party’s turf Amethi to BJP’s Smriti Irani. His resignation and Sonia Gandhi retaking the leadership role did little to turn around the fortunes of the party, which continued to lose Vidhan Sabha elections.
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