Dropped over Jaipur Dialogues link in 2024, who is Congress’s new Jaipur Urban chief Sunil Sharma?

In March 2024, the party announced Sharma as its Jaipur Lok Sabha election candidate, but he was dropped following an outcry over his association with The Jaipur Dialogues. The party then opted for former Cabinet Minister and local strongman Pratap Singh Khachariyawas who lost to the BJP’s Manju Sharma.

Following his appointment, Sharma told The Indian Express, “I am a dedicated worker of the Congress party and my commitment to the party is unquestioned.” He said his appointment comes at a time of “divisive politics and hence, all people who are like me should rally behind the secular and democratic principles of the Congress party without concerning themselves with any post or position”.

Asked about the 2024 controversy, he said, “It is not significant whether I would have become an MLA or an MP, the main question is whether India is being saved or not, whether the Constitution is being saved or not, whether the democratic, socialist and secular principles, whose foundation was laid by Jawaharlal Nehru, whether they are being preserved or not.”

“For that, the most important thing is that our commitment towards that philosophy should be unquestioned. Congress has reposed its trust in me. And I believe in taking inclusive nationalism to the people; this is the philosophy of Gandhi and of Nehru and Rahul Gandhi is carrying the mantle now, so I have to reach out to the people bearing that flag,” Sharma said.

Targeting the BJP for “distorting democracy through SIR (Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls)”, he said, “How will democracy survive if they manipulate the electoral rolls? They have weakened MGNREGA and conducted a surgical strike on a poor person’s plate and have been working for certain vested industrialists. So, we have to expose all this.”

Why Congress chose him

While on the surface his appointment might seem like a questionable move by the Congress, in Jaipur, Sharma is known for his clean image, secular credentials, as a good orator, and for having expansive knowledge of various subjects, party leaders said.

Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi said the appointment was made “as part of Sangathan Srijan Abhiyan where AICC observers spoke to workers of every level and shortlisted certain names. And then the name at the top was finalised through consensus.”

“Everyone in Jaipur knows how Sunil ji is; the 2024 controversy was unfortunate, especially because he is known to be secular and has a clean image. It is not a careless appointment; the party did its homework before choosing him,” said a senior party leader.

While the last set of 45 District Congress Committee president appointments in Rajasthan were announced in November, the Congress took two months to declare the president for Jaipur Urban and three other DCCs. Out of 50 DCCs, only Rajsamand is still without a DCC president.

The 2024 controversy

Sharma is known in Jaipur for his and his family’s long association with the Congress as well as for being the Chairman and Chancellor of the Suresh Gyan Vihar University, a private institution, in Jaipur. However, as soon as his name was announced as the Congress’s Jaipur Lok Sabha candidate, what took over was his association with The Jaipur Dialogues, which identifies itself as a “platform for the right thinking people”, and was launched in 2016 by now-retired IAS officer Sanjay Dixit.

This prompted an outcry on social media, including from Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. Congress workers and supporters had questioned the move and asked it to reconsider its decision.

At the time, Sharma attempted to distance himself from the organisation. Hours before he was dropped, Sharma told The Indian claimed that he was a director with The Jaipur Dialogues Forum, also run by Dixit, and not J D Digital Private Limited which, he claimed, is behind the social media accounts on X and YouTube that share controversial and sometimes objectionable material, “I have no association with Jaipur Digital, through which he (Dixit) spews venom or earns money,” Sharma said.

He said at the time that the Jaipur Dialogues Forum was registered as a Section 8 company since it was a charity organisation, unlike the J D Digital Private Limited, and that he had left the Forum the year before.

While he did go to debates and discussions organised by The Jaipur Dialogues, Sharma said it was to only uphold the Congress’s secular ideals and that his secular credentials don’t need to be defended since all those in Jaipur who have known him and his family will vouch for it.