‘Leadership In Cuckoo Land’: Voice Of Dissident Group 23, Sibal Asks Gandhis To Step Aside

Bhubaneswar: A day after Congress working committee meeting reaffirmed its faith in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi, senior leader Kapil Sibal on Monday said that the ‘Gandhis should step aside from the leadership role and give a chance to someone else to lead the party’.

The former Union Minister said that the Grand Old Party has been losing elections continuously since 2014 and added that the leadership is living in “cuckoo land” if it is not aware of the reasons for the party’s decline even after eight years.

The party was routed in the Assembly elections recently held in 5 states.

On Sunday, Sonia Gandhi had offered to step aside from the leadership along with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, but was turned down by the CWC.

With this, Sibal has emerged as the first voice to openly challenge the leadership of the Gandhis in the party. He was also among the 23 senior leaders, who had written to Sonia Gandhi in 2020 for bringing reforms within the party.

Speaking to a national daily, Sibal said that he was neither surprised over Congress’s rout in the state states nor over leaders reposing their faith in high command. “There is a Congress outside the CWC. Many leaders who are not in CWC but in Congress have a different point of view. Is it that we don’t matter because we are not in the CWC?” he questioned.

Meanwhile, party’s Lok Sabha whip Manickam Tagore has accused him of speaking the language of the RSS-BJP.