A day after the Congress' drubbing in the assembly elections, some leaders from the 'Group of 23' that had questioned the party leadership and sought organisational overhaul, met here at the residence of former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and expressed shock at the party's defeat.
Sources said the leaders discussed the way forward and revival of the Congress, which has become even "more marginalised and isolated". The G-23 leaders also expressed dismay at the Congress leadership for not taking any corrective steps to revive the party, they said.
Some leaders also expressed concern that the report of the committee formed to evaluate the party's losses after the last round of assembly poll defeat in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry was not even discussed. Leaders felt that after the "disastrous defeat" of the Congress in these assembly polls in five states -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Punjab and Manipur, the party stood further "weakened and marginalised".
Among those who met Azad were former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, party MPs Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari and Akhilesh Prasad Singh. The sources said the G-23 leaders discussed the party's poor performance at the hustings and their future strategy.
The meeting also comes ahead of the Congress Working Committee meeting to be convened by party chief Sonia Gandhi shortly, to assess the Congress' performance in these assembly polls in five states. The Congress drew a blank in this series of assembly polls losing all the five states, including Punjab to AAP.
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