Ambika Soni seeks 'strict action' against 23 dissenters seeking revamp of Congress: Source

Amid the leadership battle in Congress on Monday, senior CWC member and Rajya Sabha MP Ambika Soni has demanded strict action against the 23 signatories who wrote a letter demanding 'structural change' in the party. The 23 signatories include Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajender Kaur Bhattal, M. Veerappa Moily, Prithviraj Chavan, P.J. Kurian, Ajay Singh, Renuka Chaudhary, and Milind Deora -  belonging from the Congress' 'old guard ' and the 'young guard' (i.e Rahul Gandhi supporters). Apart from these signatories, over 300 Congress workers support it.

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What do the dissenters seek?

The dissenters wrote to party's interim-Chief Sonia Gandhi emphasising the need for the active revival of the party and raised questions about the party's condition and direction, demanding an internal election to the CWC even at state levels, the formation of an Independent Election Authority, and institutional leadership mechanism, full-time leadership at the helm. The five-page letter - drafted by two senior leaders (reportedly Shashi Tharoor), seeks to elect a 'non-Gandhi' chief as pointed out by the dissenting leaders in the CWC meeting. 

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Rahul Vs Sonia battle in CWC

Currently, at the CWC meeting, sources report that the party has split into two camps - one supporting Sonia Gandhi as chief, the other backing Rahul Gandhi as chief. Sources report that Sonia aides like - Kamal Nath, Manmohan Singh, AK Antony, KC Venugopal have backed Sonia to continue chief, but other leaders like - Ahmed Patel, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, DK Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah, Salman Khurshid and most state-level chiefs have called for Rahul Gandhi to take over as Congress chief - with Ahmed Patel officially proposing it in the meeting. Both the Gandhis have allegedly refused - Sonia Gandhi has insisted on stepping down while Rahul Gandhi has reportedly remained mum on the issue. 

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An all-out war between some of the signatories - Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal and the Wayanad MP occured at the CWC meeting. Rahul Gandhi allegedly said that the dissenters were 'in cahoots with the BJP', which prompted Sibal to lash out and Azad to reportedly offer to resign. While both Sibal and Azad have maintained that Rahul Gandhi did not say such a thing in the meeting or otherwise, Azad has maintained that he is willing to resign if the allegation is proved by any of the Congress leaders. The former Congress chief allegedly feels that party members should have discussed the issues in the CWC and not to the media, allegedly betraying the party.

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