leadership drift in congress the stinging note of dissent has been signed by a diverse group of party functionaries ranging from veterans and known family loyalists to notsosenior ones the letter is seen as a criticism of the functioning of rahul who with his decisions and comments has appeared to set the partys agenda on major issues even as he refuses to reclaim the presidents post the signatories point to a leadership void and seem particularly irked by what they see as rahuls reluctance to engage beyond a small circle of confidants they held discussions on sunday and will be doing so again after the cwc meeting ends on monday the letter is learnt to have warned that leadership drift has decimated the opposition camp when the country needs a strong antibjp platform to hold the government to account on economic and security crises facing the countrythe letter was signed by the leader of opposition in rajya sabha ghulam nabi azad and senior members like anand sharma veerappa moily kapil sibal prithviraj chavan mukul wasnik shashi tharoor and manish tewari besides younger leaders who were seen as close to rahul like milind deora and jitin prasada several state and district leaders also signed the letter taking the number to 300what does the letter suggestaggrieved over the drift the letter is learnt to have sought decentralised functioning and collective decisionmaking the signatories have also called for polls to the apex decisionmaking body cwc and revival of the parliamentary board with the cwc having all three gandhissonia rahul and priyankathe signatories have pitched for the appointment of a fulltime party president even if it were a nongandhi the dissenting camp is concerned over the possibility of a loyal party chief being installed and is demanding collaborative or collective leadershipcriticism of the letter within congresswith the letters contents going public there was a volley of counter statements against the signatories from the cms of punjab rajasthan chhattisgarh and puducherry former ministers salman khurshid and ashwini kumar and leader in lok sabha adhir ranjan chowdhury congress leaders countered the dissenters with many terming the timing of the missive insensitive when the party chief was not well and others saying rahul gandhi must end the ambiguity over being party presidentwith arguments on both sides exposing a sharp divide between the loyalists and those batting for change leader of congress in lok sabha adhir ranjan chowdhury former karnataka cm siddaramaiah former union ministers salman khurshid and ashwini kumar and state unit chiefs d k sivakumar balasaheb thorat kumari selja ks alagiri mullapally ramachandran anil chaudhary and govind singh dotasra released letters and tweets asserting the centrality of the gandhis to congress and the need for them to remain in controlin the camp that criticized the letter there was a strong sentiment that the uncertainty over leadership was hurting the party and rahul must take charge rahul gandhi is not president but continues to play according to a few senior leaders loyal to the gandhi family