With more than 97% of Congress candidates losing their deposits in Uttar Pradesh and the party completely routed in Punjab, dissent in the old guard has come to the fore again.

The assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, which sends as many as 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, is seen as a pointer to the 2024 parliamentary elections and the signal for the Congress is very clear. The humiliation of the party is very evident as it was able to get a mere 2.4% of the total votes even though it had contested most of the 403 seats. This is less than the RLD which garnered a 2.9% vote share even though it contested in only 33 constituencies. 

Senior leaders of the Congress party who are part of Group 23 met at senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad's residence and raised concerns over the successive defeats of the party in Assembly and Parliamentary elections.

ANI cited sources, who attended the meeting, as saying that during the meeting a few leaders suggested that they should skip the upcoming Congress Working Committee because in the meeting, the CMs, Youth Congress leaders and presidents of frontal organisations only praise the Gandhi family and do not discuss any serious issues.

Meanwhile, Anand Sharma, who is part of G-23, said that if the leaders speak assertively in the extended meeting, several sycophants oppose them. Therefore, it is necessary that only CWC people should attend the meeting.

The G-23 leaders are expected to meet again in the next few days to discuss the issue as even the alliance partners of the Congress are not taking the party seriously any more. This is also reflected in the hard bargaining that the party has to do to over seat sharing with its alliance partners.

Also read: Disgruntled MPs drag down Congress poll campaign in Punjab