Congress will not survive a ‘puppet’ president: Chavan

New Delhi: Former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Sunday cautioned that the Congress will not survive if someone is made a “puppet president“ as the party announced the schedule to elect its new chief. Stating that elections should be held for all posts, including the Congress Working Committee (CWC), Chavan who is a member of the G-23 dissident group said the urgent steps are needed to save the party and the “backseat driving“ will not work. On Ghulam Nabi Azad’s resignation, he said, “His resignation is unfortunate... Elections are due in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. In J&K a very junior and outsider (Tariq Hameed Karra) was made the head of the Political Affairs Committee (PAC) and Azad Saheb was made a member. What was the reason for this? Was this discussed?,” Chavan asked.

“There was no need to humiliate Azad sahib. There was no need to say that he has no value,” Chavan said in an interview. “On one hand Sonia Gandhi tried to include leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma in the election campaign. He was also given some responsibility. The people at the bottom, whom Azad sahib called “coterie”, did not even listen to Sonia ji.” On the issues raised by Azad in his resignation letter, he said, “There are some personal allegations in Azad’s resignation letter, I will not say anything on them. The issues raised in the earlier letter (of August, 2020) are valid. We stand by that even today.” Azad had on Friday resigned from the party’s primary membership and all posts, alleging that the Congress leadership was cheating in the name of internal elections. He had also accused Rahul Gandhi of “immature and childish” behaviour. The Congress had hit back at Azad, accusing him of betraying the party and said that “his DNA has been Modi-fied”. The Congress Working Committee on Sunday decided to hold the election for the party’s full-time president on October 17.