More than 50 leaders participated at the CWC meeting held tis evening.
Sonia Gandhi will remain Congress president, the party said Sunday after a four-and-half-hour election defeat post-mortem. The three Gandhis reportedly offered to "sacrifice" their posts but the party rejected it.
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NDTV had reported Saturday that the Gandhis would offer to resign, triggering a denial from the party. But on Sunday, a senior Congress leader, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, confirmed the same to news agency ANI. "Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi said that she along with her family members Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are ready to sacrifice for the party, but we all rejected this," he was quoted as saying.
"The CWC unanimously reaffirms its faith in the leadership of Smt. Sonia Gandhi and requests the Congress President to lead from the front, address the organisational weaknesses, effect necessary & comprehensive organisational changes in order to take on the political challenges," the Congress said in a statement.
The party also said it will hold a "Chintan Shivir" (brainstorming session) to focus on the organisational elections after the budget session of parliament ends.
More than 50 leaders participated at the meeting -- a number surpassing the combined strength of Congress's MLAs and MPs from the five states where the elections were held -- Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Punjab.
The scale of Congress defeat had set off refreshed demands for sweeping organisational changes and an accountable leadership -- first introduced two years ago when a group of 23 dissenters later dubbed the G-23, wrote an explosive letter to Sonia Gandhi.
This time, searing criticism of the top leadership came from other quarters as well, albeit off the record. There has been criticism that Rahul Gandhi, who does not hold any official position after stepping down as Congress president after the party's second straight national election defeat in 2019, continues to call the shots.
Decisions by him and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra have been seen as being responsible for the party's crushing defeat in Punjab, a state it ruled, and Uttar Pradesh.
There are only three members from the "G-23" in the CWC, Anand Sharma, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mukul Wasnik. Sources said Mr Sharma and Ghulam Nabi Azad made their points openly at the meeting.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said Rahul Gandhi should be the Congress chief. "For the last three decades, nobody from the Gandhi family became a PM or a minister. It is significant to understand that the Gandhi family is important for Congress' unity," he told news agency ANI.
This time, the Congress not only lost power in Punjab, one of the three states it rules on its own, but also the dominance it enjoyed in Goa and Manipur. In Uttar Pradesh, it won only two seats and its voteshare dwindled to just 2.4 per cent.
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