Infighting within the Congress intensified on Wednesday with Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury slamming party colleague Kapil Sibal over his Bihar poll debacle introspection remark, saying those unhappy with the party’s functioning are free to leave instead of embarrassing it in public. He lashed out at Sibal for “giving sermons from AC rooms” and said disgruntled members may join other parties or float their own outfits.
But then even former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram went public saying the party may have contested more seats in Bihar than it should have. “The Congress was given 25 seats where the BJP or its allies had been winning for 20 years. The Congress should have refused to contest from these seats.
The party should have fielded only 45 candidates,” he said against the backdrop of Congress being billed as the weakest link in the RJD-led mahagathbandhan.
He, however, said: “I am more worried about the by-poll results in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. These results show that the party either has no organisational presence on the ground or has been weakened considerably.”
For his part, wondering why Sibal was not seen campaigning for the Congress during the Bihar elections, Choudhury said, “Speaking without doing anything doesn’t mean introspection.”
“Kapil Sibal could have raised the issues inside a party forum instead of making such embarrassing remarks in public. He is a senior leader and has access to the party’’s top brass.
“Those who are unhappy with the functioning of the party have the freedom to form a new party or join one if they feel that the Congress is not the right place for them,” Chowdhury, a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), told reporters here.
His comments came in the backdrop of Sibal criticising the Congress leadership for the party’’s abysmal performance in the Bihar elections, where it bagged only 19 of the 70 seats it contested.
Sibal was part of a group of 23 senior Congress leaders who had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi in August, giving suggestions on ways to revive the grand old party.
“He seems to be very concerned about the Congress and its need for introspection. Earlier also he had spoken about it in public. But he was not seen campaigning for the party in the elections in Bihar or other states that went to polls last year.
“Instead of giving sermons sitting in AC rooms, he should work on the ground. Lecturing others without doing anything won’’t help. Only calling for introspection without doing anything on our own is of no use,” Chowdhury said.
Senior Congress leader from Bihar, Tariq Anwar, an AICC general secretary, had earlier called for introspection.
Besides Chowdhury, other senior Congress leaders have also lashed out at those calling for introspection. While Rajasthan Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot had criticised Sibal, saying his statements had hurt the sentiments of party workers across the country, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid has termed such colleagues “doubting Thomases” and said they suffer from periodic pangs of anxiety.