G-23 says issues not resolved yet, demands still pending

New Delhi, April 1 (IANS) A day after senior Congress leader Kamal Nath claimed that the issues raised by G-23 have been resolved, sources in the group, that is seeking a revamp in the party's functioning, on Friday said that none of their demands raised in meetings with party chief Sonia Gandhi have been met to resolve the issue.

The group says that in those state which for polls, the state Presidents have been sacked but the state in charges have not been taken to task yet.

While the Congress President has set up new state units in Manipur and Goa where the party fared badly in the recent Assembly elections despite the anti-incumbency factor, but the state units in Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh have not been constituted.

The G-23 also seeks that that the state incharges like Harish Chaudhary in Punjab, Dinesh Gundu Rao in Goa, Devendra Yadav in Uttarakhand, and Bhakta Charan Das in Manipur should also face the music as they could not get the desired results.

Sonia Gandhi has met some of the vocal leaders from the dissident group while Rahul Gandhi has reached out to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

But the G-23 leaders say that no forward movement has taken place since then but the group leaders have maintained silence.

Kamal Nath, the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and considered very close to Gandhi family, had said that their (G-23 group) demand of organisational polls has been met as elections will be held within three months. He said that all Congress leaders, who are in G-23 group, are his friends with whom he has worked for the party for several years.

Replying to the demand for a Congress President outside the Gandhi family, he said: "This G-23 group is very close to me. They have been my colleagues for years. They have never made any such demand. In fact, all their demands have already been met. The party elections are going to be held."

"Polls can't be held without membership, so that process is also going on and elections will be held in the next three months," he had added.