New Delhi: Amid simmering tension in the Congress party after the poll debacle, media reports suggest that party president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are expected to resign from their posts during the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Sunday.
However, the Congress party has denied the reports based on “unnamed sources” and termed it as “unsubstantiated propaganda.”
“It is unfair for a TV channel to carry such unsubstantiated propaganda stories emanating from imaginary sources at the instance of ruling BJP,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.
This is not the first time the Gandhi family members have offered to resign from the leadership roles. In earlier instances, the CWC members rejected the offer and offered renewed support to the Gandhi family.
While it is not clear how things might turn up this time, there will definitely be more opposing voices as the outcome of the assembly elections in five states, where the party received a drubbing, will be discussed.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will chair the meeting of the party's top decision-making body at its headquarters in New Delhi at 4 pm on Sunday.
The Congress lost Punjab to the AAP and could not win any of the four other states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.
In 2019, Rahul Gandhi had resigned from the post of Congress president after the party's poor performance in elections. Sonia Gandhi has been acting as the interim president since then as the party has not been able to find a replacement.
The Sunday meeting is likely to see some fireworks as the G-23 leaders had suggested corrective measures after the previous round of assembly polls, when the party lost Puducherry and failed to make a mark in Kerala, Assam and West Bengal, but there had been little movement on that front.
The leaders of G-23, who have been demanding an organisational overhaul, had met Friday evening at the residence of senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to evolve their strategy ahead of the crucial CWC meeting.
Azad and senior leader Anand Sharma are the two leaders of the group who are part of the CWC. Mukul Wasnik had initially signed a letter from the group to Gandhi but has since kept his distance.
The 'Group of 23', at their Friday meeting, expressed shock at the party's defeat. Sources said the leaders discussed the way forward and steps for the revival of the Congress which has become even "more marginalised, weakened and isolated".
They also expressed dismay at the Congress leadership not taking any corrective steps to revive the party, they said.
Some leaders were concerned that the report of the committee formed to evaluate the party's losses in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry was not even discussed.
Following the poll debacle, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is among the G-23 leaders, had on Thursday said it is clear that change is unavoidable.
All of us who believe in INC India are hurting from the results of the recent assembly elections. It is time to reaffirm the idea of India that Congress has stood for and the positive agenda it offers the nation.
