NEW DELHI: The dissenters who wrote to Sonia Gandhi calling for the appointment of a fully functional and effective party chief found themselves isolated and at the receiving end of the official camp’s fire on Monday.
The day’s developments, with none of their demands being met, left them with few options and a realisation that Congress managers had used the time between submission of the letter on August 7 and the CWC meeting a little over two weeks later to plan a comprehensive counter-attack.
Dissenting functionaries later said that while they were attacked through a scripted plan at the CWC, there were no answers to the germane questions they raised about their grievances about organisational decline and need for change of strategy and party structure to take on the BJP.
They said the issue has just begun and they will take stock of the correctives that the party takes which were promised at the CWC. It is learned that former minister Kapil Sibal had a few strong words to say when Rahul Gandhi called him to say that he had not accused them of being in cahoots with BJP.

Responding to criticism that they had acted at a time when Sonia was unwell, leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told NDTV that he had called her private secretary twice before sending the letter. “I was told that she is in hospital for a routine check-up. Still, we waited till she was back home before sending the letter,” he said. He said he had called her later and she expressed her inability to respond due to ill health. “I told Soniaji, your health is paramount, all else can wait,” Azad said. He claimed that Rahul Gandhi heard him out and was “satisfied” with the response.
At the CWC meeting, it was made clear that the party’s next course of action will very much be decided by the Gandhis even though the dissenters claimed that the lack of a deadline to decide the next party president indicated Rahul’s indecision.
While the dissenters argued that the leadership was hesitant to appoint even a “dummy”, their demands were summarily rejected.
Heavily outnumbered in the CWC, the dissenters found themselves reduced to a small faction. The signatories held discussions after the CWC meeting but there is no clarity yet on their course of action. Sticking together in the face of a massive “loyalist” counter-attack could be a challenge as the dissenting functionaries have differing agendas.