Congress Spokespersons Continue To Exit In Droves, Say Not Happy With Party’s Takeover By The Left

Defections from Congress to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are not limited to electoral politics alone.

A large chunk of the grand old party’s spokespersons who represent the party on many popular public forums, have parted ways in the past five years, with most of them having joined the ruling BJP.

The recent one among them to ditch Congress and join BJP is Rohan Gupta, the party's former national social media in-charge who last served the party as one of its national spokespersons.

Gupta along with the Youth Congress leader Jahanzaib Sirwal, former Punjab bureaucrat Parampal Kaur and her husband and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Gurpreet Singh joined the saffron party in an event held at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi on 11 April.

“Every Indian citizen irrespective of their political ideology has respect for nationalism and the Sanatana Dharma. However, ever since seniormost Congress leaders started swerving towards the political Left, the party has compromised on its stance on those two basic tenets dear to every Indian. This is why I decided to leave Congress,” Gupta said while addressing the press at the event.

“Whenever Congress leaders disrespected the nationalistic sentiment or Sanatana values, as a spokesperson, I increasingly felt reluctant to defend the party since I personally did not like what was being said,” Gupta added.

Apart from this, Gupta also took a dig supposedly at Congress's national communications in-charge Jairam Ramesh by saying, “those who have Ram in their name and haven’t fought any elections until now were misguiding senior leaders on key national issues.”

Gupta had garnered wide attention last month after he withdrew his candidature from the Congress for the Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha seat. While doing so, Gupta alleged that certain senior leaders within the Gujarat unit of Congress had been consistently trying to tarnish his as well as his father’s image. Subsequently both father-son duo resigned from the party.

Congress’s Increasing Left-Ward Tilt A Major Concern For Centrists

Notably, Rohan Gupta is the third spokesperson from Congress to leave the party and join its ideological opponents this month.

Gaurav Vallabh, a prominent Congress face who regularly participated in several English news television debates, left the party to join BJP on 4 April. This was followed by another setback to the party after the Congress’s Maharashtra unit spokesperson Raju Waghmare gave up his party membership to join the Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena.

While Vallabh resigned citing disagreement with the Congress leader’s decision to not participate in the Ram Mandir consecration ceremony and the party’s increasing Left-ward tilt, Waghmare said that the party had become direction-less.

In a letter addressed to party president Mallikarjun Kharge posted on social media handle X, Vallabh said, “I can neither raise anti-Sanatan slogans nor abuse wealth creators day in and day out. Therefore, I resign from all posts and primary membership of the party.”

This apart, Sanjay Nirupam, another prominent national spokesperson from the Congress, was expelled by the party for alleged ‘anti-party statements’ he is said to have made publicly.

Nirupam, a former Lok Sabha member and ex-president of the party's Mumbai unit, in an interview given to the Marathi news channel ABP Majha, had expressed concerns similar to those of Vallabh and Gupta.

While criticising the party's takeover by the radical left wing elements in the party, Nirupam said, “Congress was a large umbrella for people of different ideologies. This was a party which once had conservative free-market economy supporters like Malviya and Rajagopalchari as well as socialists like Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohiya and Acharya Narendra Deo. Today it has now been completely taken over by leftists.”

Nirupam alleged that those around the party’s senior most leaders, which includes those from the Gandhi family, were misguiding the party especially in matters pertaining to religion and nationalism.

Notably, senior Congress leaders and former Union ministers Manish Tewari and Anand Sharma too have expressed concerns regarding increasing clout of those with left-wing tendencies in the party. Sharma in a publicly issued letter addressed to Kharge had opposed the party’s advocacy of caste census, which is supposed to be an idea thrust upon the Congress by those with radical left leanings.

Exits Citing Similar Reasons In The Recent Past

The flight of Congress spokespersons Rohan Gupta, Gaurav Vallabh, Raju Waghmare and expulsion of Sanjay Nirupam are just examples from April this year. Several other national spokespersons have ditched Congress in the past citing similar reasons.

Jaiveer Shergill, a Supreme Court lawyer who represented Congress on several news television debates had left the party in April 2022, citing party's failure in taking a stance that resonates with the electorate.

Shergill in an interview given to the Indian Express then had criticised those close to the Congress top leadership by calling them 'habitual election-losing offenders' who were misguiding party on key issues such as killing of Kashmiri Pandits, Ram Mandir in Ayodhya and the Agniveer Scheme.

"The party has lost touch with reality. There is a systematic effort at play by a cabal and coterie to transform Congress from a formidable political party into a poorly run, mismanaged NGO," Shergill said then.

In a similar manner, Tom Vadakkan, former Congress spokesperson and party's senior leader from Kerala had resigned on the grounds of disagreement with the Congress stance on Pulwama attack. Some leaders from the party then had alleged that there was a deliberate security lapse in order to help BJP win votes.

“If a political party takes such a position that is against the country, I’m left with no option but to leave,” Vadakkan, who later joined BJP, said then.