Congress Letter Writers Seek Follow-Through, To Discuss Plan In 2nd Meet

Sonia Gandhi will stay interim president until an AICC session.

Two days after a stormy Congress meeting, it has emerged that the signatories to a letter that called for sweeping reforms, fair internal elections and a "full-time, visible leadership" will meet to discuss the fallout of their controversial move.

A few of the letter writers met shortly after the seven-hour Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday, in which Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the 23 signatories to the letter, faced searing criticism from colleagues. The group discussed that it was a choreographed attack.

Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Mukul Wasnik, Anand Sharma and Shashi Tharoor were at the meeting. In their second meeting, the letter writers are likely to discuss the key takeaways from the Monday meet, which ended with the party endorsing the Gandhi leadership and pledging to strengthen support for both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi at a time they have been at the forefront of the opposition's fight against the central government's policies.

Sonia Gandhi would continue as interim Congress chief until an All India Congress Committee (AICC) meeting to be called in six months, the party said. The Congress also decided to set up a committee to examine the grievances of the ginger group.

Sources said: "They want to follow up and ensure that their key demands in the letter are met, of elections to the CWC, deciding on appointment of district chiefs at the grass-roots level instead of the central leadership and a parliamentary board."

The letter writers, say sources, hope the committee will be constituted soon and they will be part of it, to help guide and prepare the party for internal elections and the appointment of a full-time, active Congress president and an elected CWC.

Over the last two days, Mr Azad and the three other signatories who attended the CWC meet have briefed fellow letter writers about the criticism and their response that the letter should be shown to all CWC members. The four leaders, who found themselves outnumbered and isolated at the meeting, also asserted that they had no intention of attacking Congress president Sonia Gandhi's leadership.

Mr Azad, the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and a veteran Congress leader who has always been seen to be close to the Gandhis, found himself at the receiving end of direct and indirect attacks at the CWC meeting from colleagues who praised Sonia Gandhi's leadership and called the letter writers "traitors".

Mr Azad said he would resign if it was established that those who wrote the letter collaborated with the BJP. He clarified later that what was initially seen to be a response to a comment attributed to Rahul Gandhi was directed at other Congress leaders who had been raising allegations without reading the letter.

Nudged by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi called Mr Azad while the meeting was on to smooth things over. Mr Gandhi also called up Kapil Sibal - another signatory to the letter - to clarify that he had not accused the letter writers of colluding with the BJP.

Mallikarjun Kharge and Ambika Soni reportedly called for disciplinary action. When Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury wanted Mr Azad to be stopped from speaking at the meeting - he said evil-intentioned people should not be allowed to speak - Sonia Gandhi reportedly reprimanded him.

Mr Azad has denied reports that Sonia Gandhi called him after the meeting. The Congress president has not spoken to him so far, he said.

"A section of media is wrongly attributing that, in CWC I told Rahul Gandhi to prove that the letter written by us is in collusion with BJP- let me make it very clear that Shri Rahul Gandhi has neither in CWC nor outside said that this letter was written at the behest of BJP," Mr Azad had tweeted the same day.

The decisions taken at the meeting constituted a "satisfactory outcome," the signatories to the letter said. Now they want follow-through.