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After a series of G-23 discussions, Ghulam Nabi Azad meets Sonia Gandhi

It was a ‘regular, usual meeting with the party president’, says Azad

PTI12_28_2019_000016B

G-23 leader Ghulam Nabi Azad met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday, a day after members of the dissenting group held a flurry of meetings over measures to revamp the party.

Playing down the meeting, Azad said it was a "regular, usual meeting with the party president."

"The discussion was on how unitedly Congress party can prepare for the upcoming elections. There was no question on leadership. No one had asked Mrs Gandhi to quit in the CWC," he said.

"All members of the Congress party decided unanimously that she should continue as the president, we just had some suggestions that were shared."

After the Group of 23 pitched for an "inclusive and collective leadership" in the Congress, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, one of its members, met Rahul Gandhi on Thursday and the two leaders were learnt to have discussed a revamp of the party organisation, a key demand of the dissenters.

The meetings are being seen as an attempt by the Gandhi family to reach out to the G-23, which has shown signs of increasing aggression on the leadership issue after Congress' abject loss in the assembly elections in five states.

Earlier on Friday, Azad also met veteran Congress leader Karan Singh and said he come to greet Singh on Holi.

Rahul Gandhi, a former Congress president, had called Hooda for a discussion on the political situation in Haryana. However, the discussion spilled over to the party's abysmal performance in the elections.

Sonia Gandhi had earlier reached out to Azad on Wednesday ahead of the G-23 dinner meeting at his residence.

The leaders of the grouping have since held a series of meetings at Azad's residence.

The party leadership wants to resolve the differences with the G-23 and is reaching out to its leaders. It is learnt to have deputed some senior leaders for parleys with the dissenting group to resolve the differences, according to sources. 

—With PTI inputs

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