"Cong. Is Too Weak To Split,": Sources

Ghulam Azad will meet the Gandhis in the G-23 meeting!

New Delhi: Ahead of the news of the resignation of the Gandhis from the Cong. party, in a meeting of the Congress "G-23" or rebel group last night, leaders ruled out splitting the party for now but called for the Gandhis to remove their loyalists from key posts to enable a resurrection of India's oldest party, sources said.

According to the sources, the Cong. is "too weak" to survive the split. The dissidents reportedly debated at the meeting held at the home of Ghulam Nabi Azad, a leading member of the G-23 or group of 23 dissenters who had written to Sonia Gandhi two years ago demanding changes in the Congress, including a leadership overhaul.

Moreover, the source added, Ghulam Nabi Azad will meet with Congress president Sonia Gandhi to deliver the message from the meeting and the rebels' concern. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra are likely to attend the meeting as well.

The G-23 met two days after an election post-mortem by the Congress Working Committee, the party's top decision-making body, on Sunday.

The Cong. president Sonia Gandhi offered to resign at that meeting, along with her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, saying the family was ready for the "sacrifice". That was "unanimously rejected", senior Congress leaders said after the meeting.

Ahead of that, the party announced after the post-mortem - the latest of many over the years - that the party reaffirmed its faith in Sonia Gandhi's leadership and had asked her to make corrective organisational changes.

Sonia Gandhi sacked the Congress chiefs of the five states where the party was routed and named a panel of senior leaders to suggest more changes - Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, Avinash Pandey and Jitendra Singh.

The rebels have accused the Congress of packing the panel with Gandhi family loyalists who, they say, have done little but shielded the top leadership while suggesting cosmetic changes.

The panel tasked with examining the reasons for the Congress' state election debacle has the very leaders responsible for misguiding the leadership, say the rebels.

Demanding that these leaders be dropped, the rebels said if this is not done, then "the next steps will be drastic and no one wants that".