As Rahul Gandhi accuses 23 dissenters of colluding with BJP, here's how Congress has split

A massive war has broken out in the Congress after former party chief Rahul Gandhi during the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday alleged that the dissenting party members who wrote the letter asking Sonia Gandhi to step down as the interim president are "in cahoots with the BJP." 

Ghulam Nabi Azad offers to resign

Miffed by Rahul Gandhi's alleged remarks, senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the signatories of the letter, offered to resign if the former's statement turns out to be true, sources said. Even Gandhi loyalist Kapil Sibal said that he has never made a statement in favour of BJP on any issue yet Rahul Gandhi said, "we are colluding with BJP".

However, Sibal backtracked on his comments after he was "informed by Rahul Gandhi personally" that he never said what was attributed to him, even as Randeep Surjewala made a u-turn.

Republic Media Network sources informed that the letter by 23 MLAs was the brainchild of two Congress leaders who are not signatories to the letter. The two leaders who have facilitated the dissenting letter have distanced themselves from either camp, for now, sources said adding they are pretending to be "neutral"

The explosive letter leads to a war in Congress

The 23 Congress leaders who wrote the 'letter of dissent' are - Rajya Sabha MP Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Shashi Tharoor, Vivek Tankha, Marpadi Veerappa Moily, Mukul Wasnik, Jitin Prasada, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Prithviraj Chavan,  PJ Kurian, Ajay Singh, Renuka Chaudhary, Milind Deora, Sandeep Dixit, Raj Babbar (UP), Arvinder Singh Lovely (Delhi), Kaul Singh Thakur (Himachal Pradesh), Akhilesh Prasad Singh (Bihar), former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma and former Delhi Speaker Yoganand Shastri.

The letter called for 'full time' active leadership, sweeping reforms and raising questions about the party's condition and direction, as well as demanding the election of the CWC.

Republic TV sources said that the reason behind the rebellious attitude of the old leaders for Rahul Gandhi is that the Wayanad MP wants new CWC by dissolving the old one. He also wants to replace the old General Secretaries with the new ones, sources said. Sources also said that following Rahul Gandhi's allegations, four party leaders went offline.

Rahul Gandhi's camp attack Kapil Sibal

Defending Rahul Gandhi, his supporters in the party, namely party Chief Spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, MP Manickam Tagore and former IT chief head Divya Spandana all attacked Kapil Sabil until the senior leader backtracked from his tweet.

Along with this, Ahmed Patel has recommended Rahul Gandhi's name for Congress president, even as Kamal Nath has batted for Sonia Gandhi to remain, clearly indicating where their loyalties lie.

Rahul questions timing of the letter

According to sources, Rahul Gandhi questioned the timing of the letter and asked why was the letter (over party leadership) sent at a time when Sonia Gandhi was admitted in the hospital. He said that the letter to Sonia Gandhi about party leadership was written at a time when the Congress government in Rajasthan was facing a crisis.

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The Wayanad MP said that the right place to discuss what was written in the letter was CWC meeting and not the media, sources added. Sources said that at the beginning of the meeting, Sonia Gandhi asked the CWC to relieve her as interim party chief. However, ex-PM Manmohan Singh and AK Antony urged her to continue.

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Sonia Gandhi asked CWC members "to begin deliberations towards the process of transition to relieve her from the duty of party chief", sources said. Manmohan Singh, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Amarinder Singh, Mallikarjun Kharge, PL Punia, KC Venugopal and AK Antony among others were present at the virtual meeting.

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