Sonia Breaks The Ice With ‘Rebels’ But Must Also Clear The Frost

Nearly six months after 23 Congress leaders triggered a political storm by demanding wide ranging organisational reforms in the party, interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi finally met some of them, along with other colleagues, from a five-hour long discussion.

The meeting, which had letter writers Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor and Prithviraj Chavan in attendance, saw Sonia and her son Rahul Gandhi make a genuine effort to accommodate the idea of intra-party reform in the status quoist Grand Old Party. At the meeting, were also loyalists of the party's first family - Kamal Nath (who played a key role in convincing Sonia to meet the "dissenters"), P. Chidambaram (who has occasionally joined cause with the reform lobby), AK Antony, Ambika Soni (who were critical of the letter writers at the stormy CWC meet in August), Harish Rawat and Pawan Bansal.

"It was essentially an ice-breaker since there had been no discussion on our demands ever since we wrote the letter and a lot of muck was thrown at us by some of our colleagues who thought we were attacking the Nehru-Gandhi family by demanding an end to suspense over a full-time leadership. We had a very fruitful discussion; there was no rancour or name-calling," one of the letter writers present at the meeting told Outlook.

The meeting saw Sonia urge all present to put forth their views. She, Rahul and Priyanka heard all of them and even conceded that there was an urgent need to take measures for strengthening the party and any suggestions that can help the cause would be welcome. The meeting was a huge departure from the antagonism that the letter writers faced at the CWC meeting convened virtually by Sonia in August after the letter was leaked to the media.

Those present at the meeting, including the letter writers, told Outlook that the discussion was a reminder of Sonia's "greatest asset - that of being a patient consensus builder", something that "Rahul and Priyanka have failed to develop in party matters".

Sources told Outlook that the meeting also witnessed familiar calls by some of the leaders present for Rahul to return as Congress president. "He did not give a clear answer but said that he has always done what the party has asked him to do and will be open to any responsibility he is given in the future too", said a party veteran present at the meeting.

It was Rahul's sudden resignation from the Congress presidency after the 2019 Lok Sabha debacle that plunged his party into a leadership crisis. Sonia was urged by the CWC to take over as interim chief, essentially until such a time that Rahul is convinced to return to the helm. However, Rahul has since remained non-committal on the question of returning as party president and has, time and again, told party colleagues that they must seek out a non-Gandhi chief.

The grouse that the letter writers had, aside from the party's inability to repackage itself as a credible electoral alternative to Narendra Modi's BJP, was that though Rahul was unwilling to retake the Congress's reins, he continued to run the party through politically lightweight proxies who were given plum posts in the organisation. These include the likes of Congress media cell chief Randeep Surjewala and organisation general secretary KC Venugopal among others.

Sonia deftly kept both Venugopal and Surjewala away from Saturday's meeting. Surjewala had already riled some of the letter writers on Friday by callously declaring at a party briefing that there were "no issues" (with regard to the demands of the letter writers) that needed further discussion and that "99.9 per cent Congress leaders and workers" wanted Rahul Gandhi as party president.

Over the past year, Rahul's reliance on his handpicked coterie meant a steady depletion in the clout that seniors, many of whom signed the letter, had enjoyed in the party. Rahul seemed to dismiss the seniors as “rootless wonders” and “Rajya Sabha types” even though his favourites met exactly the same criteria, and perhaps more befittingly than many veterans. Sonia was aware of this churn but did little to pacify the increasingly restless veterans; simply telling them that she valued their contribution to the party.

The letter and the bad blood that followed, coupled with her party's failure at winning elections seems to have convinced Sonia that she can no longer ignore the storm that was brewing within the Congress. At Saturday's meeting, Sonia reportedly assured the letter writers, not once but several times, that the election process for the party's presidency they demanded, will go on course. Though her loyalists like Rawat and Soni remained opposed to the idea of elections for other party posts, including membership of the CWC, Sonia ensured that the contentious issue did not derail her effort of winning over the dissidents.

When Manish Tewari mooted the idea of a party conclave to discuss the way forward for the Congress - on the lines of similar chintan shivirs held in Pachmarhi and Simla in the past - Sonia readily agreed; only stating that such a meet be organised after the party chief's election and once the ongoing Covid crisis abates significantly. Whether Sonia was simply buying time or meant what she said is something the coming months would tell. However, she made sure that the pro-reform leaders did not feel unwelcome in the party and weren't forced to consider quitting the Congress, as some of them have mildly indicated in the past few months.

Sonia also appeared open to the idea of setting up a Congress parliamentary board to discuss important matters of the party. She did not dismiss any other suggestion that came from the letter writers regarding a wide range of issues, including ideological clarity and the party's poor electoral machinery.

With her trusted aide and main troubleshooter for such discussions - Ahmed Patel - succumbing to Covid, Sonia now has to steer intra-party negotiations with uneasy colleagues on her own; at least till she finds someone she can implicitly trust as she did Patel (and that may not happen any time soon). Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, one of the signatories to the letter, told reporters after Saturday's meeting that this was "the first in a series of meetings" that Sonia had planned to convene with party leaders. Another letter writer present at the meet told Outlook, requesting anonymity, that Sonia conceded that she needs to spend more time listening to diverse views of her colleagues and will do so more frequently in the coming months.

The letter writers may not have got a blanket assurance for all their demands at Saturday's meeting - in fact, they didn't get any clear answer on any of the issues raised by them except the need for an elected Congress president - but they seem to have all returned somewhat satisfied after their audience with Sonia. The 74-year-old Congress matriarch, who had almost single-handedly extracted her party from deepening chaos and possible wilderness 22 years ago when she first stepped in as party president, seems to be refurbishing her skills to once again drag her party out of its worsening morass.

Sonia managed to break the ice with her unhappy colleagues on Saturday but may need to urgently do more to also clear the frost that remains. For now though, the letter writers seem content at Sonia's first move and will wait and watch what she does next. Sonia told those present at the meeting that the Congress is a "big family"; she now must ensure that it's also a happy family that is willing to collectively fight its battle for survival.