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Punjab polls: Manish Tewari denies quitting Cong, says he is a partner and not a tenant
"If someone wants to push me out (dhakke mar kar bahar nikalega) of the party, that's a different thing. As far as I am concerned, I have given 40 years of my life to this party," Tewari told news agency ANI.
Congress MP Manish Tewari on Thursday ruled out his resignation from the party, this amid the recent exit of senior leader Ashwani Kumar.
"If someone wants to push me out (dhakke mar kar bahar nikalega) of the party, that's a different thing. As far as I am concerned, I have given 40 years of my life to this party," Tewari told news agency ANI.
Rumours of Tewari's exit were rife in wake of recent spate of resignations from the Grand Old Party. Former UPA minister Ashwani Kumar on Wednesday ended his nearly five decade long association with the Congress.
“I am accordingly quitting the party after a long association of 46 years and hope to proactively pursue public causes inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the dignitarian promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters.”
Post his resignation, the former Union minister said that the Congress lost touch with ground reality and no longer reflected the national mood.
Manish Tewari told ANI on Thursday that incidents of leaders leaving Congress have caused damage to the party.
A day earlier, Tewari had said that Ashwani Kumar's resignation was unfortunate and took a veiled barb at the latter by saying that ambition for a Rajya Sabha seat makes people do many things.
On being asked about his 'ambition' remark, Tewari said, “I think that every person has an ambition. And I said it in this context.”
Few days ago, Manish Tewari was excluded from the Congress list of campaigners in Punjab polls. The Lok Sabha MP from Anandpur Sahib had said he would have been surprised had he made the cut.
Punjab votes in single-phase election on February 20. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
