The rebel (they may prefer ‘reformist’) G-23 group in the Congress party convened on Wednesday, March 16, evening at G-23 leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Delhi bungalow.
Interestingly, the G-23 group seems to have expanded with several senior Congressmen attending the meeting.
Were they there to savour the wazwan and other Kashmiri savouries on offer at Azad’s dinner table? Or were they present to offer more heft to the G-23 demand that the party ‘high command’ make way for new leaders at the helm?
If Sunday’s Congress Working Committee meeting — at which Azad, incidentally, was present — lasted about five hours, the rebel conclave lasted for over four hours.
Please click on the images below for glimpses of some of the attendees.
IMAGE: Preneet Kaur is the Congress MP from Patiala. She is also married to Captain Amarinder Singh (retd), founder of the Punjab Lok Congress which fought the 2022 assembly election as a BJP ally. Photograph: ANI Photo
IMAGE: Shashi Tharoor arrives for the meeting. Will the Gandhis draw him away from the rebel camp by making him party leader in the Lok Sabha in Adhir Choudhary’s place? Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo
IMAGE: Sandeep Dikshit, the late Sheila Dikshit’s son and former Congress MP from Delhi. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo
IMAGE: Kapil Sibal, the spokesperson for the rebels. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo
IMAGE: Anand Sharma will no longer be a member of the Rajya Sabha in April. Will the Gandhis field him from a state where election to the House of the Elders is assured and subdue his rebellion? Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo
IMAGE: Raj Babbar was replaced as Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president after the party’s disastrous show in the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo
IMAGE: Former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda and former Haryana assembly speaker Kuldeep Sharma leave the meeting. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo
IMAGE: Mani Shankar Aiyar, who will be 81 on April 10, was a fresh face at the rebel conclave, ironic given his reputation as a Rajiv Gandhi loyalist. Photograph: ANI Photo
IMAGE: P J Kurien too is a new entrant to the rebel faction. The 80-year-old former deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha and six-term Lok Sabha MP wants the Gandhis ejected from the high command. Photograph: ANI Photo
IMAGE: Former Gujarat CM Shankersinh Vaghela has oscillated between several political parties during his long career.
Beginning his career in the Jan Sangh, then the Janata Party, then the Bharatiya Janata Party, the the Rashtriya Janata Party, then the Congress, then the Jan Vikalp Morcha, then the NCP, back to the Congress. Photograph: ANI Photo
IMAGE: Vivek Tankha, the Congressman from MP, is perceived to be close to Kamal Nath, one of the Gandhis’s current favourites. Photograph: ANI Photo
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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