The repercussions of Sachin Pilot turning a rebel can now be seen in the Congress. There are angry outbursts within India’s grand old party. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan were left nonplussed when young MPs from Team Rahul Gandhi registered a strong dissent and blamed both of them for the party’s debacle during a meeting of the Rajya Sabha members.
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi while addressing the Rajya Sabha members said that the BJP was hell bent upon killing democracy. She said that despite the BJP’s efforts the Congress would be able to save its government in Rajasthan. But even before Sonia Gandhi’s observations could set off a debate in the Congress circles, the whole narrative got diverted after outbursts within the party and the blame of defeat had been shifted on Sonia and Manmohan. Former Union minister Manish Tewari, however, defended the two and tweeted that when the UPA was responsible for defeat in 2014 so likewise 2019 debacle should be reviewed. As a result of this, the infighting of the Congress has come out in the open.
The tussle between old guards and young leaders has been a common sight ever since Rahul Gandhi has taken over charge of the Congress. Sources said that leaders like Kapil Sibal and P. Chidambaram targeted Team Rahul Gandhi. They said the party›s graph was going down, there was no organisational management and the media department was in shambles. Poll defeats have added fuel to the fire. The old guards are now saying that these young leaders were given too much importance and they did nothing in return. In a bid to hide their failure, they started blaming us, said veterans.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that if Sachin Pilot had been given tough tasks, he would not have taken such a step. Sonia Gandhi had called a meeting of MPs to discuss various issues, but the parley parliamentarians turned the heat on Rahul›s team. The young leaders of Rahul team are either ineffective or leaving the party questioning the working style of the high command. Ashok Tanwar, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot are some of them.
Rajiv Satav of Team Rahul blamed UPA-II for the predicament of the Congress. This led to heated exchange. Rajya Sabha member from Punjab Shamsher Singh Dhillon reminded the leaders of how he struggled at the district level. He blamed that the youngsters were given too much without any struggle. According to sources, only 7 MPs out of 40 were in favour of giving Rahul Gandhi party’s charge. When Rajya Sabha MP Venugopal tried to make the situation light, Bihar MP Akhilesh Singh took potshots at him, saying Kerala may have organisational management but there is nothing like that in other states.
MPs were concerned that the party was unorganised and nothing was happening except anti-Modi rants. Members are unhappy with the leaders who have been sent to Rajasthan for crisis management. There›s a complete lack of coordination in the party. While shifting his MLAs to Jaisalmer, Gehlot said that the fight was for saving democracy. MLAs were being mentally tortured and they were being offered crores of rupees, alleged Gehlot. He further alleged that BJP top leadership was conspiring to topple his government. State leaders are sitting pretty despite rebel leaders camping in Haryana. They are not doing anything to manage. Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are backing Ashok Gehlot but other leaders are silent which is revealing the infighting of the Congress.