Former Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam launched an attack on the party leadership at a press conference on Friday.
Mr. Nirupam said several party members are conspiring against the Congress and systematically working to destabilise it. He said, “Party members who are close to Rahul Gandhi are being sidelined. This is a conspiracy being hatched in Delhi. The members who are working closely with Sonia Gandhi are extremely biased. They are solely functioning with an aim of unsettling the other members.”
Mr. Nirupam said there is systemic failure in the party and it is no longer taking feedback from the grass roots level. He said the party functioned differently earlier and welcomed suggestions from the leadership. He alleged that anti-party activities have increased since the new AICC general secretary was appointed.
Festering issues
Mr. Nirupam said, “The Congress president now treats the AICC general secretary’s word as final. There is no system of feedback or having parallel voices.” He said he has raised the issue with top leaders, but there has been no change. He said, “Leaving the party is always an open option. But I have been aligned to the Congress’s line of thinking for long.” He warned that the party is headed for bad days if it fails to take action on these festering issues.
Mr. Nirupam, who had announced on Thursday that he would not campaign for the party in the Assembly polls, said the party leadership was sidelining him though he had served as the Mumbai unit president for four years. He was removed from the post ahead of the Lok Sabha polls this year.
Mr. Nirupam said his views were not considered during ticket distribution for the Assembly polls. He said, “I have been given no role in the Assembly poll process. My views have not been considered during ticket distribution in my own Lok Sabha constituency. There is no respect for me.”
Mr. Nirupam said he was irked by the party’s decision to not give tickets to any of the candidates he had suggested. “I picked four candidates from Versova, Goregaon, Dinsoshi and Andheri East and took them to meet Kharge [AICC general secretary Mallikarjun Kharge]. He did not even speak to any of them. I have been the Mumbai Congress chief for four years. I know the city and I can tell which candidate will perform from which seat.”
On the party’s final choice of candidates, Mr. Nirupam said, “One candidate who has been given a ticket is 77 years old. He can’t even walk around.” He has predicted that the Congress will lose its deposit in Mumbai except in three or four seats.
Mr. Nirupam said the party is not prepared to fight the State election. “I don’t see any planning to book newspaper advertisements or hoardings,” he said.
