NCP questions Sonia Gandhi's Congress presidentship; asks if it's a blessing for BJP

Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) senior leader Majeed Memon has taken a swipe at Congress party over its leadership woes. The NCP leader highlighted the fact that the post of Congress President is vacant since part one year and the party is functioning without a suitable party chief. 

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The tweet by Majid Memon comes in the light of Sonia Gandhi continuing to remain the interim president of the party. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi stressed that this arrangement will continue only until a proper procedure for elections laid down in the party's Constitution is followed, though there is plenty of skepticism over this.

Surprisingly, the tweet by Majeed Memon comes at a time that 12 MLAs of the NCP are in touch with the Opposition BJP and are likely to join the party by the end of this month, according to Republic Media Network's sources.

Also, the NCP leader's tweet holds prominence as it comes from NCP, an ally of Congress and the party instrumental in the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi led government in Maharashtra. The NCP leader quipped that the absence of Congress President is a blessing for ruling dispensation'.

Plight of Congress

Congress is at the moment working under the leadership of Sonia Gandhi who is acting as the interim President. She took over the affairs of the party since her son Rahul Gandhi quit from the post of President after the party's debacle in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2019 elections, Congress won 52 seats with an addition of 8 Lok Sabha seats as compared to the 2014 polls but saw a decrease in vote share by 1.03 percent, whereas the rival BJP gained 21 seats in 2019 as compared to 2014 polls, adding it up to a mammoth number of 303 seats and also saw an increase in vote share by massive 6 percent. Even at present, the party seems to be divided in factions and political infighting can be witnessed regularly within the party.

The grand old party has also been accused of not being able to retain its youth leaders who could have been the face of the party in the future. The party had won the 2018 Madhya Pradesh assembly election by a minuscule margin in terms of seats even as the vote share was more for BJP, lost the bastion after its youth leader Jyotiraditya Scindia switched allegiance to BJP in March 2020, in turn toppling the Congress government.

A similar situation can be seen emanating in Rajasthan as well where the Ashok Gehlot led Congress government is making every possible effort to retain its MLAs from switching sides to BJP, even as its popular youth leader Sachin Pilot has parted ways with the grand old party.

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