'It's our victory that Congress will have a full-time president in six months,' says Azad

Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the signatories of the controversial letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi, said on Thursday that it was not a state secret to ask for the party to be strengthened and hold elections. Azad's sharp message to the party leadership came days after he, along with other authors of the letter, was isolated and cornered at the Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday.

Former president Rahul Gandhi had reportedly launched a scathing attack on the signatories of the letter—seeking sweeping changes to the party organisation and elections to the CWC—questioning their timing as well as the fact they went public with their grievances.

However, defending their move, Azad said their effort was to make the party strong and active. He added that those who simply got "appointment cards" would continue to oppose their proposal. 

“What is the big deal if the letter was leaked? It is not a state secret to ask for the party to be strengthened and hold elections. Even during the time of Indira Gandhi Ji, the cabinet proceedings used to get leaked,” he said, reported ANI.

Reacting to allegations that they had violated the party discipline by writing the letter, Azad said: “Those who were doing running commentary during CWC, were they not being indiscipline? Persons who were abusing us (for writing the letter), were they not being indiscipline? Shouldn't action be taken against them? We did not abuse anyone”.

He said it was their victory that the party decided to elect a full-time president within six months.

Azad said anyone who has a genuine interest in the internal working dynamics of the Congress would welcome their proposal to have every state and district president as being elected.

The marathon seven-hour-long CWC meeting on Monday had decided that Sonia Gandhi would continue as the party's interim president and effect necessary organisational changes while an AICC session would be called at the earliest to start the process of electing a new chief.

Though a large section of the leaders backed Sonia Gandhi and requested her to stay on to lead the grand old party, high drama played out at the meeting—tweets were posted and deleted, insinuation of the BJP connection behind the letter was reportedly made and officially denied by the Congress.

Soon after the CWC meeting ended, some signatories of the letter assembled at Azad's house and discussed the outcome of the meeting. Sources said these leaders, which included Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari and Mukul Wasnikm discussed the CWC meeting outcome but none of them agreed to talk about their deliberations.

PTI had quoted sources as saying that Azad even offered to resign at the meeting amid questions being raised on the letter, its timing and its leakage to the media.