Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Tuesday said that the members of the Gandhi family should step down from leadership positions in the party and give someone else a chance, The Indian Express reported.
Sibal’s remarks came days after the Congress’ poor performance in the recently-concluded Assembly polls in five states – Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur. The Congress was unseated from power in Punjab and managed to win only 55 of the 690 seats across the five states.
To review the party’s poor performance in the polls, the Congress Working Committee held a meeting on Sunday. While Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had offered to step down from their respective roles in the party on Sunday, the Committee turned down the proposal. It was decided that Sonia Gandhi would continue to be the party chief.
Sibal on Tuesday slammed the party’s decision and said that the leadership is living in “cuckoo land” if it is unaware of the reasons behind the party’s decline in the past eight years, The Indian Express reported. He said that the Gandhis should “voluntarily move away”.
“A body nominated by them will never tell them that they should not continue to hold the reins of power,” he said.
Sibal is one of the signatories of the letter sent to Sonia Gandhi in 2020, asking her to bring about reforms within the party. A group of 23 Congress leaders, also known as G-23, had signed the letter.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Anil Shastri wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that the party would be weakened without the Gandhis.
Meanwhile, the party’s Lok Sabha whip, Manickam Tagore, accused Sibal of speaking the language of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party, PTI reported.
“Why the RSS and BJP want Nehru-Gandhi’s out of the leadership? Tagore wrote on Twitter. “Because without Gandhi’s leadership Congress will be Janata party. It’s easy to kill Congress then it’s easy to destroy the idea of India.”
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