Sonia Gandhi 'rise above affinity for family' say ousted UP Congress netas in dire warning

Days after 23 senior Congress leaders wrote to the party's interim president Sonia Gandhi over the party's leadership, nine expelled leaders have now written to her as well. The leaders from Uttar Pradesh have asked Sonia Gandhi to "rise above the affinity for the family (parivaar ke moh)" and run the organisation by establishing mutual trust and restoring the constitutional and democratic values.

In the letter dated September 2 and addressed to Sonia Gandhi, the nine Congress leaders, including former MP Santosh Singh and former minister Satyadev Tripathi, said 'Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi built the Congress and the country with democratic values.' "But it's ironical that for some time, the way in which the party is being run, there is confusion ("asmanjas") and depression ("avsaad") among the ordinary Congress worker," they added.

'Congress will become a thing of the past'

"At a time, when the country's democratic values and social fabric is lying scattered, the need of the country is that Congress remain alive, dynamic and strong. You please rise above the affinity for the family, and as per traditions, restore the expression of thoughts, constitutional and democratic values, and run the organisation by establishing communication and mutual trust," the leaders urged Sonia Gandhi.

"If you deviate from your responsibility, then Congress will become a thing of the past," they said. "Today, Congress is facing uncertainty, indecisiveness, lack of communication, and lack of expression of thoughts, and is passing through a difficult phase of existential crisis."

They also said the "height of insensitivity" can be gauged from the fact that the party president does not know about the incidents taking place in the organisation or is keeping the eyes shut "despite knowing everything".

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Referring to their expulsion, the leaders said in the letter, "It is almost one year (since expulsion), but despite requests, we were not given time by the (state unit of the) party. The party's central disciplinary committee is also not listening to anything. It seems the Congress office is locked."

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Singh and Tripathi were among the 10 senior leaders who were expelled from the primary membership of the Congress on November 24 last year for six years for allegedly tarnishing the party's image and opposing its leadership's decisions at public forums.

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The other expelled leaders who signed the letter are Siraj Mehdi (former MLC), Bhoodhar Narayan Mishra (former MLA), Vinod Chaudhary (former MLA), Nek Chandra Pandey (former MLA), Swayam Prakash Goswami (former chairman of Youth Congress), Rajendra Singh Solanki and Sanjeev Singh.

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(With PTI inputs)