Sonia Gandhi

The meeting comes after the shock resignation of party veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday and his letter to party president Sonia Gandhi in which he lashed out at Rahul Gandhi for "demolishing the party's entire consultative mechanism".

According to the Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition, anyone aspiring to lead the party should be well-known throughout the country and have support from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and West Bengal to Gujarat.

A joint letter in this regard was issued by the leaders, including GM Saroori, Haji Abdul Rashid, Mohd Amin Bhat, Gulzar Ahmad Wani and Choudhari Mohd Akram. Senior Congress leader and former cabinet minister RS Chib also resigned from the party's primary membership.

Even thoughCongress leaders Ajay Makan and Jairam Ramesh termed Ghulam Nabi Azad's resignation as most-unfortunate and regrettable, the two leaders refused to take questions on the points raised by the senior leader in his resignation letter against the AICC and Rahul Gandhi.

In the 1970s, Ghulam Nabi Azad joined the Congress Party under Sonia Gandhi and worked closely with Sanjay Gandhi. He was concerned that senior leaders were sidelined as Rahul Gandhi assumed a more prominent role in the grand old party.

The Congress party has been hit by a massive exodus. The Grand Old Party has been dumped by various leaders in the last few months -- the latest being veteran leader Ghulam Nabi Azad who resigned from all posts.Let's take a look at the leaders who dumped Congress in 2022.

Jaiveer Shergill, in his letter to the party's interim president, Sonia Gandhi, said:"Congress' decision-making is influenced by 'self-serving interests.' The primary reason is that the ideology and vision of the current decision-makers of the Indian National Congress are no longer in sync with the aspirations of the youth and modern India."

Sonia Gandhi has reportedly asked Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot to take over as Congress President before she heads abroad for medical treatment.

Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi has refused to return as Congress president after he quit over the party's defeat in the 2019 national election. He has reportedly asserted that it is time for a non-Gandhi to step up.

Sonia will be accompanied by her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Her unexpected foreign travel for an undisclosed period comes at a time when there is heightened speculation on the election of the next party president.