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Once the oldest party, now a 'joke': BJP leader amid Congress Punjab turmoil
Early this week, Navjot Singh Sidhu stepped down as the chief of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, though reports said he will continue in the post as he has been placated.
Congress must come out of the shadow of the Gandhi family to become relevant again in national politics, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Shanta Kumar said on Friday amid infighting in its Punjab unit. The former chief minister of Himachal Pradesh stressed that if the Congress is eliminated from the political canvas of the country, then the "democracy will be without a national opposition," news agency PTI reported.
The remarks come as Congress is battling bitter infighting in Punjab, months before the assembly elections. Early this week, Navjot Singh Sidhu stepped down as the chief of the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, though reports said he will continue in the post as he has been placated.
On Thursday, Amarinder Singh said he will leave the party due to the mistreatment by the high command. The Congress' veteran leader also clarified that he will not join the BJP.
Speaking in Dharamsala, Shanta Kumar noted the importance of Congress and said it is the "only national party in the country after the BJP." "The chariot of democracy moves on two wheels. One is the ruling party and the other is the opposition," Kumar also said as per PTI report.
He further said that the oldest party which was once led by the likes of Nehru, Gandhi, and Patel, has now become a "joke" of late. The only treatment for Congress is to come out of the “slavery” of the Gandhi family, Kumar asserted.
Speaking on the Punjab row, Kumar said Amarinder Singh should not leave the Congress but sit together with G-23 leaders like Ghulam Navi Azad, Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor to "fight for freedom" in the party and break out of the "bondage" of one family.
The G-23 referred is a group of Congress leaders who had last year written to Sonia Gandhi, seeking an organisational overhaul of the party.
