This is the second letter of “dissent” to Sonia Gandhi from the leaders of Congress (Archive)
Lucknow:
Nine expelled Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders have written to Sonia Gandhi asking her to “overcome affinity for family (parivaar ke moh) “and lead the party by establishing mutual trust and reestablishing constitutional and democratic values.
The letter comes days after a similar one challenging the Gandhis’ management style, calling for “visible, full-time leadership” and proposing radical organizational changes, including elections at all levels and decentralization of power.
That letter sparked an explosive seven-hour meeting of the Congressional Work Committee (the party’s highest decision-making body), during which Ms Gandhi offered to resign before being persuaded by loyalists to remain in office. temporary.
“Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi built the Congress and the country on democratic values. But it is ironic that for some time, because of the way the party is run, there was confusion and depression among ordinary party workers.” UP Congress leaders, including former MP Santosh Singh and former Minister Satyadev Tripathi, said in their letter.
“When the democratic values and the social fabric of the country are dispersed, the need of the country is that the Congress remains alive, dynamic and strong,” they said.
“Please rise above the affinity for the family and, according to the traditions, restore the expression of thoughts, constitutional and democratic values, and lead the organization by establishing communication and mutual trust,” added the leaders.
Singh and Tripathi were among 10 senior leaders expelled from the party’s primary membership in November last year, for allegedly tarnishing the party’s image and opposing the leaders’ decisions in public forums.
Letters challenging the leadership of the Gandhi family in Congress have come after the party, which performed appallingly in the last two general elections, only narrowly retained power in Rajasthan, following Sachin Pilot’s outright rebellion.
Only a few months earlier, the party lost its Madhya Pradesh government after Jyotiraditya Scindia’s high-profile change to the BJP, prompting questions about the Gandhi family’s decision-making.
In the first letter, which was signed by senior and high-profile politicians such as Shashi Tharoor, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Prithviraj Chavan, Anand Sharma and Kapil Sibal, there was a fear that there was “uncertainty” about the leadership and a “drift” within of the party. it had demoralized the workers and weakened the party.
With input from PTI
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