A group of 23 Congress leaders held an event in Jammu on Saturday to launch a nationwide campaign to “save the idea of India”. These leaders had expressed dissent with the functioning of the party and even wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi.

Saying that Congress party was getting weak, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said, “It is the reason we have gathered here. We had gathered together earlier too and we have to strengthen the party together.”

He said, “Azad is one such leader who knows ground reality of Congress in every district of every state. We were saddened when we realised that he is being freed from Parliament. We didn’t him to go from Parliament…I can’t understand why is Congress not using his experience.”

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The event, organised by an NGO, saw participation of former Rajya Sabha member of Parliament Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Anand Sharma, Bhupinder Hooda and Raj Babbar.

“Be it Jammu or Kashmir or Ladakh, we respect all religions, people and castes. We equally respect everyone, that is our strength and we will continue with this,” Azad said while addressing the event. He added that Congress will contest all the elections unitedly.

“People say ‘G23’, I say Gandhi 23. With the belief, resolve & thinking of Mahatma Gandhi, this nation’s law & Constitution was formed. Congress is standing strongly to take these forward. ‘G23’ want Congress to be strong,” said Raj Babbar.

For over a year now, senior Congress leaders have expressed their dissatisfaction over functioning of the party.