Sanjay Nirupam (right) said elevation of Rahul Gandhi to Congress president post is the only way for revival of fortunes. (Twitter/@sanjaynirupam) The churn within the Congress party continued on Monday with another senior leader speaking out on the issue of the unresolved leadership crisis and the need for an urgent overhaul of the organisation.
Senior Maharashtra Congress leader and former party MP Sanjay Nirupam, in a series of tweets, wrote, “The BJP is gearing up for elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, while our senior leaders are busy fighting between themselves, that too publicly.”
Without taking names, Nirupam, who had headed the party’s Mumbai unit in the past, added, “These are the same leaders who have occupied key positions in the All India Congress Committee for years. They enjoyed power during the party’s hey days and have turned to criticism when the party is facing a tough time. Dwindling faith in the leadership of big leaders will further weaken the party,” Nirupam said.
Congress’s poor performance in the recent Bihar Assembly polls and the bye-elections in several states has rekindled the debate over the party’s future, with several senior party leaders, including Kapil Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad and P Chidambaram among others, calling for an urgent overhaul.
Nirupam also said that internal polls in the party would not resolve its problems. “There is only one solution. Rahul Gandhi should immediately take over as the party president and implement radical organisational changes. Confusion and lack of morale will continue to dog the party at the ground level till the top leadership does not act in this regard,” he said.
Nirupam, who had fallen out with the party’s high command after his defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll, is himself looking to shed the ‘dissenter’ tag. He has also been a vocal critic of the party’s decision to forge an alliance with the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.
After sidelining him from affairs in Mumbai and Maharashtra, the Congress had made him a star campaigner during the Bihar polls.
Contending that the party needed to present a fresh narrative and a new perspective, Nirupam said, “People want the Congress in a new avatar. We should shed the old narrative. Change, in this case, is the natural course.” Arguing for cutting the deadwood out, Nirupam also demanded giving a leg up to “hardworking and energetic leaders and workers”.
