: The group of 23 senior Congress leaders who wrote a letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi on leadership issues,do not want Rahul Gandhi to emerge strong, senior Telangana Congress leader M Shashidhar Reddy said on Monday.

He hit out at former union minister Gulam Nabi Azad for being critical of the party affairs.

"The fact is that he (Azad) and some of his 'Group of 23' friends do not want Shri Rahul Gandhi to emerge strong," he alleged in a press release.

He further charged Azad as union Health minister had then failed to aggressively campaign about the Rs 4,300 crore fund allotted for National Programme for Prevention and Control of Encephalitis and the Samajwadi Party made this a major issue and won in 2012 UP Assembly polls.

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