Rahul Gandhi has been projected as the future Prime Minister of the country by the Congress Party for way too long now. He first contested Lok Sabha polls in 2004 and by 2009, it was clear that he was being groomed for the top post.
But come 2022 and we see no signs of Rahul Gandhi emerging as the Prime Minister of the country in the near future. In fact, the latest reports suggest that he may be losing support within his own party itself.
With Punjab Assembly polls approaching, all parties have sought to start their respective campaign blitzkrieg. However, Congress is said to be facing a major crisis in the state.
Five Congress MPs planning to “defy” party leadership, say sources
According to India Today, five Congress MPs are planning to “defy the party’s senior leadership”. The sources have said that the five lawmakers had planned of boycotting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s election campaign in Punjab.
Rahul Gandhi started his mega election campaign in Punjab on Thursday. But the sources say that the five MPs didn’t find Rahul Gandhi’s leadership “acceptable”.
5 Congress MPs absent from Rahul Gandhi’s rally in Amritsar
In fact, five Congress MPs skipped a rally addressed by the Gandhi scion at Amritsar. These five MPs were Manish Tewari, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Jasbir Singh Gill, Preneet Kaur, and Mohammad Sadiq.
Jasbir Singh Gill however tweeted, “Due to my personal obligation I was not able to attend Amritsar function & for this I had already informed my leadership, no assumptions please”.
Due to my personal obligation I was not able to attend Amritsar function & for this I had already informed my leadership, no assumptions please
— Jasbir Singh Gill MP official account (@JasbirGillKSMP) January 27, 2022
ANI quoted Gill as saying, “We had no problem in going. We came to know that the event was for the 117 candidates. Neither the PCC president nor the CM invited us; not even the general secretary in charge. If we had been invited, we would have definitely gone.”
KC Venugopal dismisses reports of MPs boycotting Rahul Gandhi
Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal has dismissed the latest reports. He said that the reports of the ‘boycott’ were just baseless rumours and were “not true”.
Yet, it is undeniable that Congress has faced internal dissensions in the state of Punjab. Last year, former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh quit the party owing to deepening differences with the current Pradesh Congress Committee president Navjot Singh Sidhu. Amarinder has now formed his own party and is contesting the upcoming polls in an alliance with the BJP.
Read more: Amarinder Singh destroys Channi govt’s claims on PM Modi’s security breach
The current party leadership in Punjab too had some problems. In October last year, there were reports of differences between Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu.
The party managed to put up a united face only recently with Sidhu and Channi publicly embracing each other. At least, the Congress seemed to claim that all was well within the grand old party ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls.
But a bigger crisis has now hit the Congress party and this is putting a question mark on Rahul Gandhi’s leadership itself.
If the speculations about five Congress MPs planning to ‘boycott’ Rahul Gandhi are true, then it doesn’t speak well of the Gandhi scion’s future prospects. Rahul Gandhi’s political future didn’t look very bright before this either. But losing support within the party is too big a setback. He was dreaming of ruling India, but it seems that he may not have the support of his own party itself.