'Internal rumblings have rocked party': Kharge reveals mood in Cong camp, warns of doom

The internal rift within Congress intensified on Thursday after senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge accused "some people" of weakening the party from within. Speaking at an event to mark the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, he indirectly hit out at Rajya Sabha MPs P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal who questioned Congress' performance in the recently-concluded Bihar polls and by-elections. Admitting that internal rumblings have "rocked the party", the ex-Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha predicted a dire future for Congress if its ideology weakens.

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge remarked, "It is painful to see some senior leaders speaking about the party and about our leaders. On one hand, the BJP-RSS have been after us. On the other hand, internal rumblings have rocked the party. We can’t go forward if we have people weakening the party from within. If our ideology weakens, the party will be doomed."

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Kharge affirms faith in the party leadership

On this occasion, the newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP also sought to explain the delay in conducting elections to the Congress Working Committee. He lamented that some leaders were talking about holding organizational elections at a juncture where more than 100 persons can't gather together in one place owing to the COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, Kharge put the blame of the election results on the respective state Congress units. He dismissed the notion that Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her predecessor Rahul Gandhi should be held responsible for every electoral loss.

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Dissent within Congress

Sibal, one of the 23 senior Congress leaders who had expressed dissatisfaction with the party's leadership, again raised probing questions after the debacle in the Bihar Assembly election and the bypolls. In an exclusive interview with The Indian Express on Monday, he contended that the people of the country "don't consider Congress to be an effective alternative". The former Union Minister alleged that there was a reluctance to address issues within the party as the Congress Working Committee is a "nominated body".

Indicating that Congress leadership is taking it "business as usual" despite the party managing to win only 19 out of the 70 seats in Bihar, the Rajya Sabha MP stressed, "The culture of nominations must go. Elections through nominations will not lead to the desired results. Some of us put our pen to paper and said what should be done in the Congress on the road ahead. Instead of listening to us, they turned their back on us. The results are for all to see."

Read: 'Didn't See His Face In Bihar': Adhir Chowdhury Tears Into Kapil Sibal Over Cong Criticism

Meanwhile, former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram too raised concerns about Congress' recent performance especially the by-election results of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka in an interview to Dainik Bhaskar. Observing that Congress contested more seats than its organizational strength in Bihar, he added that the party should have refused to fight in the 25 seats where BJP or its allies have been winning for nearly two decades. Chidambaram called for a comprehensive review of a downturn in Congress' electoral fortunes.