A day after Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi wrote to the party leaders, asking them to get together and find a new chief, son-in-law, Robert Vadra’s self-proclaimed ‘chela’ and ‘gold buddy’, Jagdish Sharma has been relentlessly staging dharna and raising slogans outside AICC office demanding that the Party’s reigns should remain in the hands of the Gandhi family only.
“We want Party President from Gandhi family only. Party will be destroyed and break away if any outsider is made President,” Robert Vadra’s ‘chela’ was quoted as saying by ANI.
Delhi: Congress workers raise slogans outside AICC office, demanding that Party President should be from Gandhi family.
— ANI (@ANI) August 24, 2020
Congress worker Jagdish Sharma says, “We want Party President from Gandhi family only. Party will be destroyed & break away if any outsider is made President.” pic.twitter.com/b5HzTptuhJ
Reportedly, Captain Amarinder Singh had also opposed the idea of a non-Gandhi president of the Congress party and has called that the attempt by a few leaders to seek a change in the leadership as a bid to weaken the party.
Jagdish Sharma and his unfaltering loyalty towards Vadra
It is probably Jagdish Sharma’s unfaltering loyalty towards the Gandhi family’s son-in-law that has deliberated him to engineer the protest wherein he asserts that no ‘outsider’ can be Congress president. Sharma is the same person who had held protests, after Congress’ 2014 election debacle, demanding that Priyanka Gandhi Vadra be brought into active politics to ‘save the party’.
In fact, Sharma has always been very vocal about his proximity to Robert Vadra. In 2012 after hurling a shoe at AAP Supremo Arvind Kejriwal, Sharma had boasted of being Vadra’s ‘Gold Buddy’. Similarly, in December 2018, Jagdish Sharma had asserted that he was “Vadra Sahab’s chela”.
Sonia Gandhi to step down as Congress interim president, say reports
Meanwhile, Sonia Gandhi has reportedly told her aides that she does not want to continue as interim Congress president. This came amid a massive controversy over a letter by 23 top party leaders calling for sweeping reforms, introspection and “a full-time, visible leadership”. The letter suggests that the Gandhis, who has led the party for most of the years since its inception, can remain an “integral part of the collective leadership”.
Sonia Gandhi has decided that the matter will be discussed at the Working Committee meeting today.
