Rahul Gandhi meets G-23 member Bhupinder Singh Hooda

New Delhi, Mar 17: Former Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday had a meeting with Bhupinder Singh Hooda, one of the members of the rebel G-23 Group, and both the leaders reportedly discussed a revamp of the party organisation, a key demand of the dissenters.

The meeting takes place a day after the Group of 23 pitched for an "inclusive and collective leadership" in the Congress. It lasted for around an hour and half and they deliberated on the party's defeat in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa, sources informed news agency PTI.

Gandhi had called Hooda for a discussion on the political situation in Haryana even as G-23 had shown signs of increasing aggression on the leadership issue after Congress's abject loss in the assembly elections in five states.

Hooda reportedly informed to Rahul Gandhi that no action should be taken against Kapil Sibal, who recently said that the Gandhis should step aside and pave the way for someone else to take over the reins of the party while a section of party leaders demanded action against Sibal.

The G-23 has been persistently seeking a restructuring of the organisation since it first wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi in 2020 about it after of a string of electoral losses and the party's diminishing clout. After the meeting, Hooda, a former chief minister of Haryana, visited Ghulam Nabi Azad, the informal leader of the grouping, at the latter's residence.

Hooda and Azad were learnt to have discussed "concrete proposals", the details of which were not immediately known, to strengthen the Congress. The G-23 had made a strong pitch for "collective leadership" at its meeting here on Wednesday.

Deputy Leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha and another G-23 leader Anand Sharma also joined Hooda at Azad's residence where they discussed the outcome of his meeting with Rahul Gandhi. Later in the evening, Sibal also met Azad at the latter's residence. The grouping had, in a statement on Wednesday, said the "only way forward for the Congress was to adopt a model of inclusive and collective leadership and decision making at all levels." They insisted they want to strengthen the Congress and "not undermine it in any way."

Rahul Gandhi's meeting with Hooda is significant in the context of the G-23 statement and the telephonic conversation Azad had with Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday. Sonia Gandhi had reached out to Azad ahead of the G-23 meeting.

Sources said Azad is likely to meet Sonia Gandhi with the proposals soon and make a case for course correction in the party. PTI