Congress hit out Kapil Sibal for criticising party leadership over failure in elections

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Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury hit out at former Union minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday for criticising the party leadership over the failure in recently-concluded assembly elections in five states. Chowdhury said that G-23 – named after a group of 23 senior Congress leaders who had demanded organisational elections in the wake of party crisis in Punjab last year – doesn’t have the habit of staying out of power and are trying to save themselves by criticising the leadership. "Kapil Sibal kahan k neta hain mujhe pata nahi. He got many advancements because of the Congress party. Things were good when he was a minister in the UPA govt now when UPA is not in power he is feeling bad," the Lok Sabha member said. “I don't know what's his (Kapil Sibal) mass base.

Sibal had said that the Nehru-Gandhi family should step aside and give some other leader a chance to lead Congress.

"Leadership is in cuckoo land...I want a 'Sab ki Congress'. Some want a 'Ghar ki Congress'," he told the Indian Express in an interview.

The remarks came after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) urged Sonia Gandhi to continue leading the party and initiate changes to strengthen it. Sibal’s interview didn’t go down well with Gandhi loyalists and launched an all-out attack on the lawyer-politician. Chowdhury said that Sibal should set an example by doing something without the support of Congress and fight for his ideology on his own.

“Otherwise what is the outcome of just giving interviews while sitting in an AC room,” Congress MP shot back.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said that Kapil Sibal “may be a good lawyer but he is not a good leader of the Congress party.”

“He never went to any village to work for Congress. He is deliberately trying to weaken the party. No one can weaken Sonia Gandhi or the Congress party,” Kharge added.

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