NEW DELHI: Actor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar's exit from the Congress has again brought focus on coterie around party leader Rahul Gandhi. She is not the only one complaining about this as many other former party men and senior leaders have flagged similar issues.
In her resignation letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, hours before joining the BJP, she pointed fingers at people sitting in higher offices having no ground connection and dictating terms in the party. Other leaders like former national spokesperson Sanjay Jha, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who joined BJP in 2015, had expressed similar views.
Like Khushbu, there are others who had earlier said that the country could progress under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who joined the BJP in March this year, was also upset over delay in decision making by the party high command.
"Few elements seated at a higher level within the party, people who have no connectivity with the ground reality or public recognition are dictating terms and people like me who wanted to work for the party sincerely, are being pushed and suppressed," Sundar wrote.
She further said that decision to end association with the Congress comes after a long thorough thought process over a period of time. Even before her resignation letter emerged, the Congress had dropped her as spokesperson and said that her exit will have no impact on the state assembly elections in Tamil Nadu scheduled 2021.
Issues like leadership vacuum, the party having no ground connect, and the urgent need for organisational elections were also raised recently by a group of 23 senior Congress leaders addressed to the party chief.
“It is easier to approach Congress president than Rahul Gandhi. She patiently listens to you with full attention which is not the case with former Congress chief. The meeting requests with him are always at the discretion of his close aides,” said a senior party leader, in-charge of a key state.
After the party’s Lok Sabha debacle in 2019, many party leaders had targeted his core team members for having no connection with political reality on the ground and misleading him about reality.