The split within the Congress widens as the rebel leaders are all set to prop an opposition candidate to the party’s presidential poll in June this year, should Rahul Gandhi is made a candidate. As reported by News18, the members of G-23 rebel Congress leaders they will not let Rahul Gandhi be elected as party president again without a fight.
The rebel leaders are upset at being left out from all policy decisions including poll strategy. They have also been left out from campaigning. On Saturday, in a show of strength against Congress leadership, a group of 23 dissenting Congress leaders like former MP Ghulam Nabi Azad, former union ministers Anand Sharma and Kapil Sibal, assembled in Jammu on a three-day trip to the union territory.
However, it seems the rebel leaders will not stop at Jammu. Such meetings are expected to take place across the country, next stop being Himachal Pradesh where Anand Sharma hails from. Sharma, one of the staunchest Gandhi-family loyalist was overlooked for the post of leader of opposition. Rahul Gandhi loyalist Mallikarjun Kharge was made the leader of opposition. As per a source quoted by New18, accepting orders from Kharge was unacceptable to Sharma. Sharma is currently the deputy leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
After Himachal Pradesh, the G-23 Congress leaders plan to carry out such meetings in other states too like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana. All this while the G-23 rebel leaders have been claiming that their dissent is for a ‘strong’ Congress. Congress, evidently, in recent times, has been struggling to win back its relevance.
Last year in August, they wrote a letter to Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi saying how the party is currently leaderless and rudderless. The party does not have a full-time president ever since Rahul Gandhi quit after the humiliating defeat Congress had in 2019 general elections. However, the dissenting leaders are accused of ‘being ungrateful’ and trying to hurt the party in middle of various state assembly polls.
Meanwhile, the rebel Congress leaders, while not speaking it out as many words, feel that the split in the party is inevitable. And this could happen when Rahul Gandhi is re-elected as party president sometime in June this year.