After a fiery session of the Congress Working Committee on Monday that saw 23 leaders who wrote a dissent letter being roundly attacked,  interim president Sonia Gandhi reached out to Ghulam Nabi Azad, one of the signatories of the letter and one who bore the brunt of the attack by ‘loyalists’.

“Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi had a word with party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet on 24th August. She assured him that concerns will be addressed,” reports ANI quoting sources.

This ‘concerns will be addressed’ assurance follows the complete shutting out of the change-seekers in the CWC meet, where they were outnumbered and snubbed and ‘disciplinary’ action sought against them.

ALSO READ: By picking on Ghulam Nabi Azad, a Congman of 47 years, Rahul Gandhi may have gone too far

The CWC witnessed some dramatic scenes with many leaders reportedly accusing the change-seekers of working at the behest of the BJP. This was, however, later denied by party leadership, including Rahul Gandhi. But, it triggered a chain of angry reactions from Azad and Kapil Sibal. While Azad dared the party to prove the charge, Sibal posted an angry tweet. Many were surprised that the leaders chose to pick on Azad with an impeccable ‘loyalist’ record and the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

The party quickly went into damage control with Rahul Gandhi calling Sibal and saying he never said that the group was acting in ‘cahoots with the BJP’. Party spokesperson Surjewala also tweeted saying that reports were wrong.

After a marathon seven-hour session, Sonia Gandhi said she bore no ill will against the letter writers and that ‘let bygones be bygones’. But the message emerging from the meeting was that the party was not willing to go into the impact the leadership limbo was having on its credibility.