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Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday sought to silence the detractors within the organisation, saying she is a full-time and a hands on party chief, insisting that the revival of the grand old party required unity, self-control, discipline and keeping its interests paramount.
"The entire organisation wants a revival of the Congress. But this requires unity and keeping the party’s interests paramount. Above all, it requires self-control and discipline," she said in her opening remarks at the Congress Working Committee (CWC).
A group of Congress dissenters, which came to be known as G-23, had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi in August 2000 seeking a full-time President, a visible leadership and organisational elections from top to bottom.
The group included senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Mukul Wasnik.
"I m acutely conscious of the fact that I have been interim Congress President ever since the CWC, asked me to return in this capacity in 2019. We had, thereafter, you may recall, finalised a roadmap for electing a regular President by June 30, 2021. But the second wave of Covid-19 overtook the country and this deadline was extended indefinitely by the CWC on May 10, 2021," she said.
"Today is the occasion for bringing clarity once and for all. A Schedule for full-fledged organisational elections is before you," she added.
Sonia Gandhi also gave a detailed account of party activities during her tenure as the interim Congress President.
"I am, if you will allow me to say so, a full-time and hands on Congress President. In the last two years, a large number of our colleagues, particularly the younger ones have taken on leadership roles in taking party policies and programmes to the people - be it agitation of farmers, provision of relief during the pandemic, highlighting issues of concern to youth and women, atrocities on dalits, adivasis and minorities, price rise, and the destruction of the public sector. Never have we let issues of public importance and concern go unaddressed. You are aware that I have been taking them up with Prime Minister as have Dr Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi."