Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal said it is time the Gandhis step aside from the leadership role and give some other person a chance. His statement comes days after the rout of the party in the Assembly elections and a day after the Congress Working Committee reaffirmed its faith in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi.
He said the leadership is living in “cuckoo land” if it is not aware of the reasons for the party’s decline even after eight years, while slamming the party’s decision to hold a brainstorming session.
One of the signatories to a letter that 23 senior leaders had written to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking sweeping changes in the party, Sibal is the first senior Congress leader to demand that the Gandhis make way for a new leader. He said the Gandhis should “voluntarily move away” because “a body nominated by them will never tell them that they should not continue to hold the reins of power.”
Sibal said he is neither surprised by the party’s defeat in the Assembly elections nor the decision of the CWC to reaffirm faith in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. He said a large number of leaders outside the CWC have an entirely different point of view.
“There is a Congress outside the CWC… kindly listen to their views, if you choose to… Lots of leaders like us who are not in the CWC but in the Congress have an entirely different point of view. Is it that we don’t matter because we are not in the CWC? Therefore the CWC, according to them, represents the Congress party in India. I don’t think that’s correct. There are lots of Congressmen around the country, people from Kerala, from Assam, from Jammu and Kashmir, from Maharashtra, from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, who don’t hold that point of view,” he said.
“I cannot talk on behalf of others. It is purely my personal view that today at least I want a ‘Sab ki Congress’. Some others want a ‘Ghar ki Congress’. I certainly don’t want a ‘Ghar ki Congress’. And I will fight for a ‘Sab ki Congress’ till my last breath. This ‘Sab ki Congress’ means just not getting together, but getting together all those people in India who don’t want the BJP,” he said.
“We are assuming now that Rahul Gandhi is not the president of the Congress and Mrs Gandhi is. Rahul Gandhi went to Punjab and made the announcement that Charanjit Singh Channi will be the Chief Minister. In what capacity did he do that? He is not the president of the party, but he takes all the decisions. He is already the de facto president. So why are they asking him that he should take back the reins of power? So they want the de facto president to become the de jure president but it doesn’t matter, he is the de facto president,” he said.
