After the news broke that 23 Congress leaders had written to the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi calling for leadership changes, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has come out in defence of the Gandhi family, saying now is not the time to raise issues.
In a statement, Singh said the need today is for a strong opposition against the BJP-led NDA, which he said was out to destroy the country’s constitutional ethos and democratic principles.
"The move by these Congress leaders to demand a rehaul of the party at this critical juncture would be detrimental to its interests, and the interests of the nation," he said.
The veteran Congress leader said the NDA’s success was attributable to the absence of a strong and united Opposition.
"What the Congress needs is a leadership that is acceptable not just to a few but to the entire party, through its rank and file, and the nation at large," he said, adding that the Gandhis were the right fit for this role.
"Sonia Gandhi should continue to helm the Congress as long as she wants," he said, adding that Rahul Gandhi should thereafter take over as he is fully competent to lead the party.
The Congress Working Committee is set to meet on Monday. The letter is believed to have been written two weeks prior.
Among the 23 leaders who wrote the letter, reported by Indian Express, included the leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, MPs Shashi Tharoor, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Manish Tewari, Vivek Tankha; CWC members Mukul Wasnik and Jitin Prasada as well as veteran party leaders like Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Rajender Kaur Bhattal, M Veerappa Moily, Prithviraj Chavan, P. J. Kurian, Ajay Singh, Renuka Chaudhary; ex-PCC chiefs like Raj Babbar (UP), Arvinder Singh Lovely (Delhi) and Kaul Singh Thakur (Himachal); current Bihar campaign chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh, former Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma; former Delhi Speaker Yoganand Shastri and former MP Sandeep Dixit.
Calls for a change in the party leadership via elections have strengthened as Sonia Gandhi is set to complete one year as the party’s interim president, following Rahul Gandhi’s resignation after the party’s drubbing in the 2019 general elections.
On Sunday, Tharoor tweeted a quote by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, hinting at the need for change within the party. "Without passion and urge, there is a gradual oozing out of hope and vitality, a settling down on lower levels of existence, a slow merging into non-existence. We have become prisoners of the past and some part of its immobility sticks to us."
With inputs from PTI
