Already facing a barrage of defections in various states, the Congress suffered another blow on Tuesday when former Rajya Sabha MP and five-term party Lok Sabha MP from Gujarat’s Chhota Udepur Naran Rathwa and his son, Youth Congress leader Sangramsinh Rathwa, joined the BJP in Gandhinagar. The Rathwas said the decision was due to “demoralisation from lack of decision-making” in the party.
“The Congress has been unable to rebuild the party after facing defeat. It is because there is no decision-making and effort… Rahul Gandhi is on a Nyay Yatra across the country but there is no Nyay (justice) within the party. The educated youth of the party are not being given any responsibility… The Congress had a strong youth base but there is no motivational support from the party,” Sangramsinh said.
Adding that the decision to quit the Congress was taken with a “heavy heart”, Sangramsinh added, “It is not easy to take a decision to quit the party that one has been associated with for so many years but there is no other way… Year after year, the party is breaking and getting more disorganised. Compared to the performance pulled by the party in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly polls, it has cut a sorry figure due to faulty ticket distribution and sending away strong leaders of GPCC [Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee] to other states… They are morally breaking the cadre.”
Sangramsinh added that the Congress’s decision to skip the Ram Mandir inauguration was a reflection of its “poor decision-making skills”. “We are mass leaders and the party should understand that the larger sentiment is above their ego… When they received an invitation to attend the Pran Pratishtha of the Ram temple, they should have honoured it as it was the Congress that had first broken the locks of the Babri Masjid. But the Congress has failed to capitalise on such moments,” Sangramsinh said.
Naran Rathwa has been an elected Congress Lok Sabha MP from 1989 to 1998 for four consecutive terms. He lost to Ramsinh Rathwa of the BJP in 1999 but returned to win the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. Naran Rathwa also completed his Rajya Sabha term as a Congress MP in February this year.
Sangramsinh Rathwa, who began as a youth leader of the Congress, has been the president of the Chhota Udepur Municipality as well as the vice-president of the Gujarat Youth Congress. He is also a director of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee of Chhota Udepur and is a director at Baroda Dairy. He is also the former general secretary of the Indian Youth Congress.
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