Voices rise against Rahul Gandhi's coterie

Milind Deora tweets 'field party work & electoral battles key to comprehend ground realities that should form basis for leadership posts in Congress'

While internally questions have been raised over Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, in the wake of the poll debacle of the party, now party leaders are speaking out against Rahul Gandhi’s team of advisers.

Former union minister Congress leader Milind Deora today tweeted, “Field party work & electoral battles are key to comprehend ground realities. This should form the basis for leadership posts in Congress.”

He rationalised that with another tweet saying that "My comments are out of emotions of deep loyalty to the party, pain of our performance & a sincere desire to see us bounce back. Nothing more". Deora was not the only one to question, non political appointees, senior party leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi also appeared to agree with Deora’s views.

Deora took to social media a day after, saying that Rahul Gandhi's advisers did not have their "ears to the ground" and those with "no electoral experience" were "calling the shots".

While Deora is also one of the young Congress faces, his questioning Rahul’s coterie of advisers is of significance.

Chaturvedi, today hoped that an "honest and ruthless introspection" is carried out to rectify the problems, adding that while whatever Deora stated might not be fully correct but "large portion of what he said is correct".

AICC secretary Priya Dutt, who also lost the polls like Deora today met Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Stressing on the "disconnect" of party leaders with the people, she said, "We need to bridge that gap. We need to bring that right upto the leadership. There is a lot of criticism. We have to look at where we have gone wrong in the past ten years," she said.

Significantly, not a single member at the Congress Working Committee CWC had spoken out against Rahul Gandhi’s advisers. They had unanimously rejected the resignation of both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.