'An outrageous statement': Chhattisgarh minister seeks Kapil Sibal's expulsion over comments on Gandhis

RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Health Minister TS Singh Deo on Thursday demanded the expulsion of senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal over his recent remarks against the party leadership.

Singh Deo took to Twitter to slam Sibal and said the former Union minister must be expelled from the party for going public with his personal and "obnoxious" opinion against the decisions of the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

The Congress's top decision-making body met in New Delhi on Sunday to discuss the party's defeat in the just concluded polls in five states.

The Congress minister shared a clip of Sibal's newspaper interview which quoted him saying, "Gandhis should step aside, give some other leader a chance".

"By all means (this was) an outrageous statement by Mr Kapil Sibal!" Singh Deo tweeted.

"Among the tough decisions being taken in this course correction, Mr Sibal must be expelled from the party for going public with his personal and obnoxious opinion against the combined decision of CWC," Singh Deo said.

Sibal's criticism of the top Congress leadership had provoked a backlash from the Gandhi family loyalists, who accused him of speaking the language of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The lawyer-politician is a member of the 'G-23' grouping that has been critical of the Congress leadership and demanding organisational overhaul since 2020.

The Sonia Gandhi-led party performed poorly in the February-March Assembly elections.

The Congress failed to win back any of the four BJP-ruled states - Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur - while it lost Punjab to the AAP.