Questions have once again been raised on the leadership of the Gandhi family in the Congress party. Senior party leader and former Rajya Sabha vice-president PJ Kurien says that someone outside the Gandhi family should take over the reins of the party. During an interview, he also questioned the capabilities of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. At the same time, he has also spoken of ignoring senior leaders.
During an interview, Kurien said that Rahul Gandhi is a leader who “does not have stability” and cannot be given responsibilities. He has suggested giving the reins to someone outside the Gandhi family. The Congress had to face a crushing defeat in the recently held assembly elections in five states. The party lost the government in Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party.
Kurien said, ‘Captain does not leave the ship in times of trouble. He suddenly resigned from the post (Congress chief) after the 2019 election. But continued to take important decisions of the party. The 81-year-old leader claimed that Rahul Gandhi is surrounded by a circle which has no organizational knowledge, electoral history.
He said, ‘He takes many decisions after consulting his close leaders. The party cannot go ahead like this. Leaders who intervened to save the party were ignored. In fact, the Congress leader was talking about the G-23, which has been demanding reforms in the organization for a long time. He also wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi in this regard. The special thing is that after not winning any state on its own in the last 10 assembly elections, the crisis in the Congress had deepened.
The special thing is that Kurien’s statement has come at a time when the party is trying to distance itself from those who raise questions against the current leadership. “The party has been running without leadership for some time. When the party needed Gandhi the most, he left the party. There is no stability in them. The party cannot give them the responsibility again. Now the party needs a strong leadership.
KV Thomas, who received a show cause notice for attending a Left party event, also supported Kurien. Thomas said, ‘Whatever he said is right.’ Kurien was a minister in PV Narasimha Rao’s government. He has also been a five-time Lok Sabha MP.