News Analysis India

Tag: Congress meet

  • New Congress president Kharge meets party workers for first time after taking charge

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday met party workers and members of the public for the first time after he took charge last month.

    Party workers queued up outside the AICC headquarters here since morning for the meeting and the new party president met them in his office one by one.

    Kharge had taken charge as Congress president on October 26 in the presence of former party chief Sonia Gandhi.

    He was elected as the new Congress president on November 19 after he defeated Shashi Tharoor in a direct contest.

    The party veteran had declared soon after his election that every worker and leader was equal to him and he would reach out to all to help strengthen the organisation.

    Kharge is the first non-Gandhi to assume the charge of Congress chief in 24 years. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have headed the grand old party in the past.

    NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday met party workers and members of the public for the first time after he took charge last month.

    Party workers queued up outside the AICC headquarters here since morning for the meeting and the new party president met them in his office one by one.

    Kharge had taken charge as Congress president on October 26 in the presence of former party chief Sonia Gandhi.

    He was elected as the new Congress president on November 19 after he defeated Shashi Tharoor in a direct contest.

    The party veteran had declared soon after his election that every worker and leader was equal to him and he would reach out to all to help strengthen the organisation.

    Kharge is the first non-Gandhi to assume the charge of Congress chief in 24 years. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have headed the grand old party in the past.

  • Azad meets Sonia, puts forward suggestions to strengthen Congress organisation 

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: G-23 leader Ghulam Nabi Azad met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday and said he conveyed suggestions to strengthen the party, a day after members of the dissenting group held a flurry of meetings over measures to revamp the organisation.

    Speaking to reporters after meeting Sonia Gandhi, Azad said it was a good meeting with the Congress president with the discussion centred on how to prepare and fight unitedly the forthcoming assembly polls to take on rival parties.

    Playing down the meeting, he told reporters that it “may be news for you but we keep meeting the Congress president at various intervals”.

    “Mrs Gandhi keeps having discussions with leaders to strengthen the organisation. A few days ago the working committee had met and suggestions were asked as to how to strengthen the Congress party and what were the reasons for the defeat (in five assembly polls). I had also given my suggestions,” he said.

    However, it is not possible to record and remember all suggestions, he added.

    Azad said he reiterated suggestions to strengthen the Congress organisation. The meeting comes a day after members of the G-23 held a flurry of meetings over measures to revamp the party.

    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 came 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.