(This story was originally published on 25 March 2022. It has been reposted from The Quint's archives in the backdrop of Kapil Sibal's resignation from the Congress party.)
The Congress' leadership appears to be ready for a rapprochement with the group of dissenting leaders, with the exception of one – Rajya Sabha MP and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal.
In the past few days, Congress President Sonia Gandhi personally met several leaders from the group of leaders collectively labelled G-23 due to the 23 signatories who wrote a letter expressing concern over the party's functioning in 2020.
In the last one week, Sonia Gandhi met Ghulam Nabi Azad on 18 March, and Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, and Vivek Tankha on 22 March. She also reached out to Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Prithviraj Chavan for a meeting. Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi had already met Hooda last week, barely a day after some of the G-23 leaders with a few new additions issued a statement calling for "inclusive decision making."
After meeting Rahul Gandhi, Bhupinder Singh Hooda met Ghulam Nabi Azad.
We look at three things regarding the Congress' reconciliation efforts:
What's driving the rapprochement between the Gandhis and a major chunk of the G-23 leadership?
Why is Sibal being singled out?
What lies ahead?