Congress president Sonia Gandhi continued to demonstrate her engagement with change-seekers who upped their ante after the party’s latest electoral debacle. Gandhi, who had met Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday, invited Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari and Vivek Tankha to her residence on Tuesday for an exchange of views on the party’s crisis and on the way out. She is expected to meet more change-seekers in the coming days.

If for nothing else, the meetings, after last Wednesday’s demand for a ‘collective leadership in the party by change-seekers, marked a tactical departure from the Gandhis’ indifference since December 2020.

Since both sides were aware of the issues – stated in the 23 change-seekers joint letter to Gandhi, their subsequent demands in CWC meetings and Azad’s elaboration last Friday about the contours of a collective leadership including revival of the Congress Parliamentary Party and an elected Central Election Committee – Tuesday’s discussions were more about exchanges of concerns.