Sonia Gandhi asked to be relieved as Congress president and urged the party to start looking for a replacement as the party's top decision-making panel met a day after an explosive letter written by 26 top leaders calling for "a full-time, visible leadership" emerged. Sonia Gandhi's announcement led to statements in support of her and sharp criticism of the letter-writers, mainly by Rahul Gandhi who intervened to accuse the "dissidents" of collaborating with the BJP. The letter, demanding "collective decision-making", calls into question the leadership of the Gandhis, who have led the Congress for much of its 134-year history. One of the signatories to the letter, Ghulam Nabi Azad, offered to resign if "he was in any manner mixed up with BJP".
