LUCKNOW: In a jolt to the Congress ahead of the byelection on Bangarmau seat in Unnao, its former Unnao MP Annu Tandon resigned from the party on Thursday.
Rumours are abuzz that she may join the Samajwadi Party though both sides kept mum. In her letter to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Tandon cited ‘misalignment with the state level leadership’ as the reason for snapping ties with the party.
“Unfortunately, there is a misalignment between the state level leadership and me. And I do not see their support in allowing me to work since the past several months,” she stated in the letter and urged for its immediate acceptance.
Terming it as “painful and disgusting”, Tandon said she had raised the issue with UP incharge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. “She (Priyanka) had assured me that the Congress president was aware of the situation too. However, we have been unable to resolve a forward path that is amenable to all the parties concerned,” said Tandon, who was Unnao MP from 2009-14. She subsequently lost the election from the seat in 2014 and 2019.
Targeting the party’s state leadership, Tandon said: “The loss I faced in 2019 Lok Sabha election was not as painful as seeing the party organization disintegrate and decimate itself since then. The state leadership has focused only on social media management and self-branding and is oblivious of the deep divisions in the party and the voters it has thus caused.”
She also accused the state level leadership of spreading canards about her and her associates to score brownie points.
Tandon added that no attempt was made by the party leadership to stem this. She said she would consult her supporters for future plans.
UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, however, said Annu Tandon has been expelled from the party for six years for anti-party activities and her resignation came in response to it.