News Brief

Cracks Emerge In Congress Post Delhi Debacle: How Leaders Are Taking On Senior Members Of The Party

Swarajya Staff

Feb 12, 2020, 01:56 PM | Updated 05:32 PM IST


Rahul and Sonia Gandhi (Mohd Zakir/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Rahul and Sonia Gandhi (Mohd Zakir/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Soon after getting routed in the Delhi assembly elections, cracks have emerged in within the Congress party, with many leaders expressing displeasure over statements made by senior members of the party.

It was earlier reported that Congress national spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee, who is the daughter of former president Pranab Mukherjee, had questioned P Chidambaram for gloating over AAP’s victory in Delhi.

“Has Congress outsourced the task of defeating BJP to state parties? If not, then why are we gloating over AAP victory rather than being concerned about our drubbing?”, tweeted Mukherjee.

Now other Congress leaders like Milind Deora and Pawan Khera have slammed senior party leader P C Chako for blaming the late Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit for the party’s defeat.

Chacko was quoted by ANI as saying that the party’s downfall in Delhi started in 2013 when Sheila Dikshit was in power.

This angered a few Congress leaders like Deora said that it was unfortunate for Dikshit to be blamed for the party’s debacle after her death.

Even Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera criticised Chacko by pointing out that the party’s vote share was always respectable during Dikshit’s leadership and only slumped to single digits in her absence.

Incidentally, besides sparring with senior leaders, Congress members also expressed disgruntlement with the party’s performance and overall strategy.

Party spokesperson Sanjay Jha tweeted that the party needs a complete reinvention and should get down to taking action rather than introspect.

Even Congress supporter Tehseen Poonawalla questioned the party’s strategy of promoting leftist leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mewani at the expense of its own youngsters and loyalists.

It is now being reported that P C Chacko has now quit has Delhi Congress-in-charge. A few months ago Chacko had also created a controversy when he had praised murder accused separatist leader Yasin Malik for his “courage”.


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