In a blow to the Congress ahead of the Haryana Assembly polls, its former State unit chief Ashok Tanwar resigned from the party’s primary membership on Saturday, alleging that there is a conspiracy to eliminate leaders groomed by Rahul Gandhi.
Tanwar announced his resignation on Twitter and posted a four-page resignation letter addressed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. He said he took the decision after long deliberations with party workers and his supporters.
“I, after several months of consideration, tender my resignation from the primary membership of the Congress party, which I nurtured with my sweat and blood. My fight is not personal but against the system which is destroying the grand old party,” Tanwar said.
“Congress is going through an existential crisis, not because of its political opponents but because of serious internal contradictions,” he said.
Tanwar has been miffed with the Congress ever since he was replaced as Haryana Congress chief by Kumari Selja early last month.
Earlier this week, alleging corruption in distribution of tickets for the October 21 Haryana Assembly polls, Tanwar and his supporters protested outside party president Sonia Gandhi’s 10 Janpath residence here. The Congress has denied his charges and said due process was followed in distribution of tickets.
In his resignation letter, Tanwar alleged that hardworking Congressmen, who rise from the grassroots and belong to non-political and humble family backgrounds, are not valued in the party anymore. “Money, blackmail and pressure tactics seem to work at the end. Now the Congress is the anti-thesis of democracy, plagued by feudal attitudes and medieval conspiracies,” he said.