Congress slams Owaisi's remark on Ghulam Nabi Azad's 'fate' in party amid tumult in CWC

Taking a jibe at AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi's controversial remark on Ghulam Nabi Azad's fate in Congress, party spokesperson Pawan Khera, on Monday, quoted a Faiz Ahmed Faiz's couplet to him. Stating that the 'thing that was not even known to anyone, he (Owaisi) was annoyed due to that', Khera lashed out at Owaisi's remark on 'Muslims' loyalty to Congress'. Currently, the tumultuous CWC meeting is underway in AICC headquarters, with 52 leaders remotely attending it.

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Congress slams Owaisi's remark on Ghulam Nabi Azad

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Rahul Vs Ghulam Nabi Azad

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.

Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi, Owaisi said, "Ghulam Nabi Azad used to call us BJP's 'B' team. Now, his party's former chief said he colluded with BJP by signing on the letter. Muslim leaders in Congress, who are wasting time, should think for how long they'll remain a slave of Congress leadership".

The former Congress chief allegedly feels that party members should have discussed the issues in the CWC and not to the media. His camp feels that the party was betrayed by the senior Congress leaders who wrote the dissenting letter which has 23 signatories and over 300 Congress supporters. Sources report that the 'Sonia Vs Rahul' battle is being perpetuated by Congress, while the actual issue is to elect a 'non-Gandhi' chief or not, as pointed out by the dissenting leaders in the CWC meeting.

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23 leaders seek 'structural changes', Sonia offers to resign

Hinting at apparent turmoil within the Grand old party, 23 senior leaders wrote to party's interim-Chief Sonia Gandhi emphasising the need for 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 bears the signatures of leaders from the Congress' 'old guard ' and the 'young guard' (i.e Rahul Gandhi supporters). Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tiwari,  Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor, Jitin Prasad, Veerappa Moily, Pramod Tiwari, PJ Kurien, Sandeep Dikshit, as per sources. 

Amid row, Rahul Gandhi feels 'dissenters betrayed Congress' by taking grouse to media

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.