Congress bars its spokespersons from representing party on TV debates for 30 days after Lok Sabha defeat: With the Congress’ massive defeat in the Lok Sabha elections 2019, the party has asked its spokespersons no to appear on TV debates for at least a month. Congress media chief Randeep Surjewala made it clear on Thursday, May 30, 2019. Surjewala also requested media channels to not place Congress representativeS on their shows.
The move comes to keep Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the party out of media glare after reports surfaced that Rahul insisted on resigning from all party posts claiming moral responsibility for the party’s poor show in the recently concluded 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Also, ICC feels it’s better to keep away the spokespersons out of TV debate as most of them are not in Congress decision-making mechanisms and in this circumstances, they are not in a position to defend or articulate party line with clarity.
Moreover, following the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, the party has had to clarify on media reports citing remarks made by Gandhi at the closed-door meeting. Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and others are attending the meeting. As the party restricted to 52 seats in the lower house, questions have been raised about the effectiveness of the party’s high command both internally and externally.
The party is facing leadership crises as party president Rahul Gandhi is sticking on quitting on his post. However, the leadership crises in the Congress seems to have been temporarily waded off as Rahul Gandhi has been persuaded to maintain the status quo at least for the time being. In the hour of crisis, Congress in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Raj Babbar, Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik, Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jhakar, Jharkhand, Congress state chief Ajoy Kumar and Maharashtra Congress state chief Ashok Chavan offered to resign from party posts.
Sources say that a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party will be held in which the party may elect its leader and the party’s leader in Lok Sabha on Saturday.
The country’s grand old party received a massive defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by winning just 52 of the 354 seats. The Narendra Modi-led BJP, on the other hand, won 303 seats.
