'Don't Know Who is Taking Decisions': Congress Politician Wants Party to Discuss the Debacle Within

Last year, a group of 23 rebel Congress politicians, or G-23, wrote a letter to their party chief Sonia Gandhi, demanding sweeping changes and "visible and effective leadership" within the party.

Kapil Sibal, a senior parliamentarian from India's main opposition party - Congress - on Wednesday hit out at his own party's main leadership over a spate of resignations and defections of senior party leaders to other political parties.

On Wednesday, Sibal, a senior Congress politician who has been a part of the G-23 rebel group, held a press conference and remarked: "In Congress, there is no elected president now. Who is taking calls? We don't know who is taking decisions in the party."

"Why are people leaving? Maybe we should see whether it is our fault? We have to immediately call a meeting of Congress Working Committee (CWC), at least so that a dialogue can take place," Sibal said.

Referring to G-23, Sibal said that it is not a group of "Ji-Huzoor" (Yes Men) and that members of the group will keep raising uncomfortable questions for the party in a bid to bring about improvement.

His statement came amid recent developments in the poll-bound northern state of Punjab where Congress witnessed the resignations of two senior politicians from their posts within a gap of a few days due to infighting and one-upmanship within the party.

While the Punjab state chief and senior-most Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh resigned on 18 September, his party's state unit head, Singh's main rival Navjot Singh Sidhu, also stepped down on 28 September.

Singh resigned days after Sidhu, backed by senior leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, was made the party's head for Punjab by Congress high command against the former's will.

Sibal’s comments, however, spurred a strong reaction from several Congress supporters, who staged a protest outside his residence in the evening, condemning his remarks on the party’s recent setbacks.

One of the protesters while speaking to news channel Aaj Tak said, ”Kapil Sibal is among the senior-most leaders of the party but it is agonising to see that he is maligning the party publicly. There is no leadership crisis in Congress party.”

WATCH: Congress Workers protest against Congress Leader Kapil Sibal at his residence. pic.twitter.com/9NpuAMxJ91

— Prashant Kumar (@scribe_prashant) September 29, 2021

Meanwhile, another senior party leader, Ghulam Nabi Azad, has also written to Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi, calling for a meeting of the Congress' top authority (CWC) to elect a full-time party president.

Azad is also part of the "G-23", a group of 23 dissenting Congress leaders that includes veterans in the party. Members of the group have been regularly voicing discordant notes with the top party leadership without directly naming the members of the Gandhi family, who have been at the helm of the party for decades.

Apart from Punjab, severe infighting persists in Congress-ruled Rajasthan, where State Chief Ashok Gehlot is at loggerheads with fellow party leader Sachin Pilot.

A veteran Goa leader Luizinho Faleiro also quit the party this week and joined Trinamool Congress in West Bengal state on Wednesday.