After rethink, Gurudas Kamat chooses to remain in Congress

Congress leader Gurudas Kamat. File photo

Gurudas Kamat withdrew his resignation as Congress general secretary on Thursday, a fortnight after >he had submitted it : he changed his mind, he said in a press release, after party president Sonia Gandhi convinced him that “the Congress party is the best platform to serve the country.”

Both Ms. Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi have told him, he said, that he would continue to hold charge of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.

However, it is learnt that he has also been assured by the party high command that he will have a say in party affairs in Mumbai where he has had considerable influence for over a decade.

Mr. Kamat’s rethinking his decision has come as some relief to a party beleaguered by departures and simmering rebellion. If former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi recently quit the Congress to form a new party, former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda defied the party whip in a recent Rajya Sabha poll and submitted a blank ballot to demonstrate his displeasure with the party leadership.

Of course, Mr. Kamat had made clear at the time of resignation that he did not intend to join any other party or form his own. He was apparently unhappy that he had been marginalised after a younger colleague, Sanjay Nirupam — who had come some years back from the Shiv Sena — had been made Mumbai State chief by the party.

Mr. Kamat, in sharp contrast, has risen through the ranks in the party, having started in the Youth Congress. Party sources say that his show of anger may help him get a better share of tickets for his followers for the key Mumbai municipal corporation election next year.

These sources add that Mr. Kamat has a resignation-happy past: in the 1980s, he quit as Maharashtra Youth Congress president; in 2011, upset at being given a MoS slot in the Union Council of Ministers, he refused to take the job.

Party sources say that Mr. Kamat has got his way for two reasons: one, he is generally believed to be a man of integrity; two, the party leadership is very weak at the moment and cannot afford to read him the riot act.