CWC meeting will be convened very soon: Surjewala a day after Azad, Sibal demanded it

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The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will meet "very soon", the party said on Thursday, a day after some senior leaders demanded such a meeting in the face of multiple desertions and turmoil in the organisation.

Chief spokesperson of the Congress Randeep Surjewala said the party president had indicated last week that a meeting of the CWC, the top decision-making body of the party, would be called very soon.

"Before leaving for Shimla, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had already indicated that a CWC meeting shall be called very soon. Accordingly, the CWC meeting shall be held in the coming days," Surjewala told PTI.

On Wednesday, senior party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal, who are part of a group of 23 leaders (G-23) seeking organisational revamp, demanded that a meeting of the CWC be convened immediately to discuss internal party issues such as a spate of defections from the party and turmoil in many state units including Punjab.

Sibal had also raised questions on the decision-making process in the party in the absence of a regular president, and demanded dialogue where all senior leaders would be heard.

"In our party at the moment there is no president. So we don't know who is taking these decisions. We know and yet we don't know.... I believe one of my senior colleagues has written to the Congress president to immediately convene a CWC. So that at least some things that we can't speak publicly, we can have a dialogue in the CWC as to why we are in this state," he said.

Azad has written to the Congress president demanding that a meeting of the CWC be immediately convened.

Azad said that the party should welcome suggestions and not suppress them. While Azad and some other G-23 leaders are part of the CWC, Sibal is not.

Hitting back at Sibal, Surjewala had said, "Every Congressman and woman must also seriously introspect whether by their words and actions they are attempting to weaken the Congress in the times of crisis."

Sibal had said, "We are not 'Jee Huzur 23'. We will continue to put forth our views and will continue to repeat our demands."

In an apparent attack on the party leadership, he said there is no monopoly in the power structure of any country or political party. 

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