Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said that there was a lack of clarity and cohesion among the party’s state-level leaders.
Gandhi made the comment in her opening remarks at a meeting of Congress state presidents and general secretaries in Delhi. She said that the party’s statements on national matters were not reaching cadres at the grassroot level.
The Congress president told her party’s leaders that they must fight the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s “diabolical campaign”.
“We must do so with conviction and expose their lies before the people if we are to win this battle,” she added.
Gandhi emphasised that Congress workers must be trained to oppose the “unceasing onslaught of malicious disinformation campaigns at the behest of the BJP/RSS”.
She also told Congress’ state unit presidents to put the party’s interests before their personal ambitions.
“I would like to re-emphasise the paramount need for discipline and unity,” the Congress president said. “What should matter to each and every one of us is the strengthening of the organisation. This must override personal ambitions. In this lies both collective and individual success.”
Gandhi’s comment assumes significance as the Congress is facing political turmoil in Punjab, just months before Assembly polls are set to take place.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who had stepped down from his position in September, had complained that he had been humiliated by the Congress. Singh has since been criticising the party.
Singh is likely to launch his own party and is hopeful of a political arrangement with the Bharatiya Janata Party for the state elections, his media advisor Raveen Thukral had said last week.
Singh’s resignation as the Punjab chief minister came after a long and bitter feud with party colleague Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Sidhu had also resigned as the Punjab Congress chief on September 28, just two months after being appointed to the post. He was reportedly upset about the changes introduced by newly-appointed Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi in the Punjab Cabinet.
However, the Congress leadership has not accepted Sidhu’s resignation. After a meeting with Rahul Gandhi on October 15, Sidhu said that the matters of contention had been resolved.
On Sunday, Sidhu tweeted a letter in which he listed 13 matters that the state government should address ahead of the Assembly elections next year.
The matters included delivering justice in sacrilege incidents in Punjab, tackling the drug menace, providing employment to the people and rejecting the Centre’s contentious agriculture laws.
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