The Congress lost another stalwart, Kapil Sibal, when the former Union minister filed his Rajya Sabha nomination as an independent backed by the Samajwadi Party on Wednesday.
Sibal, among 23 senior Congressmen who wrote to party president Sonia Gandhi, calling for organizational reforms and the need for internal discussions on leadership in the wake of the Congress’s continuing humiliating defeat in the 2019 general elections, differentiated itself in the party felt isolated for a while. He said that he sought and received support from the Samajwadi Party (SP).
“I resigned from the Congress on May 16 and am no longer a Congress leader,” he said, refusing to be drawn into criticism of the party. “I had a deep relationship with the Congress. It was for 30-31 years. This is not a small thing. I joined the Congress because of Rajivji (former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi). You must be thinking about how one can go from Congress after 31 years. There must be something. Sometimes such decisions are to be taken.” He added that his ideology continues to be related to Congress.
“I am not far away from the Congress and its ideology. I am with the sentiments of the party,” he said.
His effort and his dream would be to see that all opposition parties come together on a common platform to fight the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the lawyer-politician said.
“We want to make a coalition and oppose the Modi government. We want to create an atmosphere in which we can oppose the BJP. I will personally work towards that,” he said. Discussing the SP’s support for Sibal, Akhilesh Yadav described him as a senior leader and a well-known lawyer.
“He has been in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha and put his point across well everywhere. I hope he will put his views on big questions of unemployment and inflation, insecure borders and China” – he said.