‘Doesn’t know ABC of Congress’: Ashok Gehlot hits out at Kapil Sibal for Gandhis’ criticism

“Kapil Sibal is not a person from the Congress culture. He is a renowned advocate who entered Congress. Sonia ji and Rahul ji have given him a lot of chances. It is not expected from a person who doesn’t know the ABC of Congress to give such statements,” Gehlot was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

In an exclusive interview to The Indian Express, Sibal slammed the party’s decision to hold a brainstorming session and stated that the leadership is living in “cuckoo land” if it is not aware of the reasons for the party’s decline even after eight years.

Signatory to a letter that 23 senior leaders had written to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking sweeping changes in the party, Sibal is the first senior Congress leader to demand that the Gandhis make way for a new leader. He said the Gandhis should “voluntarily move away” because “a body nominated by them will never tell them that they should not continue to hold the reins of power.”

Sibal also said he is neither surprised by the party’s defeat in the Assembly elections nor the decision of the CWC to reaffirm faith in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. He said a large number of leaders outside the CWC have an entirely different point of view.

Earlier in the day, Congress’s Lok Sabha whip Manickam Tagore hit out at Sibal for his remarks against the leadership and accused him of speaking the language of the RSS-BJP.

Tagore, a staunch Rahul Gandhi loyalist, said the RSS and the BJP want the Gandhis to be out of leadership position in the party in order to kill the Congress party and destroy the Idea of India.

Meanwhile, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has asked the PCC chiefs of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, Manipur to resign, senior party leader Randeep Surjewala said. Informing about the party’s decision of removing chief of post-poll states, Surjewala said the resigantion has been asked in to ‘facilitate reorganisation of Pradesh Congress Committes’.

The development comes a couple of days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) held a meeting to discuss the reasons for the party’s  in these Assembly polls.

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