The internal fight in Congress seems to deepen as Haryana Congress MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi on Monday lashed out at senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad over his '5-star culture' remark. He said, "Some leaders are playing into the hands of parties opposing us. Some of them have cases filed against them. So they want to weaken the Congress party in collusion with other parties. But we would not let their conspiracies to succeed."
The response came after Gulam Nabi said that Congress should shed the five-star culture, at least in elections, and insisted that leaders should hit the roads and reach out to people. "There is no connection between the leaders and the people," he contended.
Kapil Sibal too had raised similar concerns. Contending that he was "compelled to speak publicly" as there is "no forum in the party to discuss party issues", he said that the Congress needs efficient and senior leaders to manage elections.
After Sibal spoke out publicly in wake of the recent Bihar and bypoll results, a few of the dissenters have been adjusted in the party structure, with Azad, Anand Sharma, and P. Chidambaram made members in committees headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, has also slammed Sibal, saying that those who have problems could join another party.
The Congress is witnessing turmoil within, especially fuelled further by the Bihar Assembly polls and states bypolls debacle. One issue perceived to lie at the root is the selection of the Rajya Sabha candidates.
Many leaders, actually said to be a group of 23, including the likes of Kapil Sibal have questioned the leadership. However, several others have rushed to defend former President Rahul Gandhi.
However, this rebellion in the name of reform is not new in Congress as it has broken many times in the past:
The current Congress is not a party with Gandhi, Nehru, and Patel:
First of all, it is important to know that today's Congress is not a party with Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Subhash Chandra Bose, Sardar Patel. The election symbol of the 135-year-old Congress was 'Joda Bail/Two bull' while the symbol of today's Congress is 'Palm'of hand.