Leaders close to Kapil Sibal said most supporters agree that there is a problem within Congress. (ARCHIVE)
New Delhi:
Kapil Sibal from Congress, who has been criticized by his party colleagues for his critical comments of the party leadership, has refused to officially respond to the attacks. Sources close to him, however, said that he had expressed surprise at being targeted for not campaigning in the Bihar elections.
The attack came from the party leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury. “If Kapil Sibal had gone to Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, he could have shown that what he says is correct and that he strengthened the position of Congress,” Chowdhury said.
Leaders close to Sibal said Chowdhury’s stance is “unfortunate as Adhir and other leaders are unaware that most G-23 leaders were not on the party’s activist list for Bihar and none of them could go to the campaign unless the party officially requests them. “
The G-23 was a reference to the 23 dissidents who sent the first critical letter to the party in August, unleashing an internal storm and ending up losing the various party positions they held.
The latest Congress versus Congress battle, sparked by the Bihar results, escalated on Wednesday with strong comments from Chowdhury about the leaders involved.
“If some leaders think that Congress is not the right party for them, they can create a new party or join any other party that they think is progressive and in accordance with their interests,” the deputy had told NDTV.
Sibal was first in the line of attack for his interview on The Indian Express, where he advised Congress to “recognize that we are in decline”, pointing to the series of setbacks in Bihar, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh where the party has a strong presence.
In the same interview, he had also mentioned that he had been forced to make his views public because “there has been no dialogue and there does not seem to be any effort to dialogue on the part of the management.”
He pulled spikes from Salman Khurshid, who said: “The fact is that we know who the leader is, the fact is that we follow the leader. If we follow the leader and we don’t get what you think we should get, it doesn’t mean Are we going to give up the leader ? Someone doesn’t believe we have a leader, so they don’t know what the party is about. “
On Tuesday, in a lengthy Facebook post, Sibal called dissidents “dubious Thomas” who suffer “periodic pangs of anxiety” and advised them not to seek “shortcuts” to power.
Leaders close to Sibal said most party members unofficially agree that there is a systemic problem within the party and that the problems must be resolved.
Without wanting to add to the issue of Salman Khurshid or Ashok Gehlot, they added that there is a “serious drift” within the party. “Unless the party takes some drastic measures and reinvents itself with strong and active leadership, the party may not be able to stand up to the Narendra Modi government,” they said.
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