Lucknow: Ever since the humiliating defeat of the Congress in the assembly elections in 5 states, including Uttar Pradesh-Punjab, the dissident camp of the party, which is said to be the G-23, has become quite active. On Wednesday, a meeting of 18 leaders was held at veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad's house, in which some people are in the G-23, while many more new leaders were also present. It was being said about this meeting that some resolutions may be passed in this meeting demanding major changes in the Congress, but nothing of that sort has happened in the meeting.

In this meeting, veteran Congress leaders have demanded collective and inclusive leadership. In the meeting, there was no demand for the formation of a non-Gandhi Congress president or for organisational elections. However, these leaders have suggested to the party that Congress should form an alliance with political parties that agree with its ideology. This has been suggested especially for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.  

These leaders said Congress should try not to be isolated among the opposition parties. Leaders of a total of 6 states attended the meeting. Apart from former Union Minister Kapil Sibal, who made a direct attack on the Gandhi family, Anand Sharma and Prithviraj Chavan were also involved. All these leaders have been part of the G-23 group, which had written to Sonia Gandhi two years ago seeking changes.

This time, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Raj Babbar, Shankersinh Vaghela and Mani Shankar Aiyar also attended the G-23 meeting. All these leaders were not in the G-23 group earlier. Interestingly, senior Kerala Congress leader and former Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor also attended the meeting. He was among the leaders who wrote to Sonia two years ago but had been keeping away from her since then.  

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