As the dust after the 2019 general election settles, all the parties are ready to take on the roles according to the mandate of the Indian electorate. On one end, leaders from the NDA have started functioning in the various administrative domains, on the other hand, the Congress and other opposition parties are still struggling to overcome the embarrassing and shocking defeat. Leading the opposition camp is surely the Congress party which has not taken the electoral defeat well. Even close aides of Rahul Gandhi, who gave him close counsel during the critical general elections are also nowhere to be found. A number of Rahul Gandhi’s trusted aides have gone incommunicado after the election loss.
This list includes seemingly the most confident and vocal voices on Social media who didn’t leave any stone unturned to promote Rahul Gandhi’s image and at the same time toiled hard to undermine the electoral campaign of PM Narendra Modi. As the Congress Chief also has reportedly taken refuge in the United Kingdom, his lieutenants have also gone incommunicado.
The controversial Congress’ head of the social media wing and close aide of Rahul Gandhi, Divya Spandana has also deleted her twitter account, two days after she had congratulated Nirmala Sitharaman on being given the finance ministry portfolio. Her Instagram account also appeared to have been deleted however she is still active on Facebook.
According to ANI, her Twitter account does not display any tweets and her Twitter bio does not mention her as head of social media. There is also ambiguity on whether she is still part of the social media team. Divya Spandana has been under fire for giving the Congress campaign on social media a toxic turn, therefore speculations over her dismissal from the post are also making rounds. However there is no official confirmation from either the Indian National Congress party or Spandana herself. Word is out that Divya Spandana has parted ways from the team, according to a source quoted by ANI. According to a report by Sunday Guardian live, Divya had charged the party around Rs 8 Crore for her services.
“four of the eight persons working in the Congress president’s office have resigned. In addition to Chakravarty, Divya Spandana, who, her detractors claim, charged the party nearly Rs 8 crore, is also untraceable….”
— Smita Prakash (@smitaprakash) June 16, 2019
Praveen Chakraborty, another close aide of Rahul Gandhi has also gone incommunicado after the poll results and efforts by senior leaders to contact him have failed miserably. Chakraborty, Chairperson of Data Analytics Department of the Indian National Congress according to his twitter bio, is also missing from the scene. Praveen Chakraborty spearheaded the Congress Campaign to rubbish almost every exit poll and had also reportedly also predicted that Congress would win on at least 164 seats in the elections. According to a report by Sunday Guardian live, Praveen Chakraborty had billed the grand old party a whopping Rs 24 crore for his services which evidently were not up to the mark as he had not even provided the Congress with the hard disc of the data he had collected.
More than the crushing electoral defeat, what followed within the Congress is surely not a good sign for the party which still claims to be the main opposition to the ruling BJP. In fact, four of the eight persons working in the Congress president’s office have resigned. Top advisors and senior functionaries abandoning the party is surely another red flag for the party, which has been resistant to evolve in any sort of organizational front and now this mass exodus of leaders is surely a sign of imminent political oblivion.