Cong dissent letter crisis: Action sought against Jitin Prasada in UP

The “dissent letter” crisis within Congress seems far from over as a Congress unit in Uttar Pradesh has demanded action against all the signatories, especially former Union minister Jitin Prasada.

Senior leader Kapil Sibal and Manish Tewari, also signatories to the letter, criticized the move. “Unfortunate that Jitin Prasada is being officially targeted in UP Congress needs to target the BJP with surgical strikes instead wasting its energy by targeting its own,” Kapil Sibal tweeted.

Manish Tewari responded to Mr Sibal’s post with a single word: “Prescient!”

A total of 23 Congress leaders had written to interim party president Sonia Gandhi calling for sweeping reforms, collective decision-making and “full-time, visible leadership”. The letter caused a furore in the party that is struggling to keep itself politically relevant.

It is not known if the letter demanding action against Prasada has a go-ahead from Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is the party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh.

“Jitin Prasada is the only person from Uttar Pradesh to have signed the letter. His family history has been against the Gandhi family and his father Jitendra Prasad proved it by fighting elections against Sonia Gandhi. Despite this, Sonia Gandhi gave Jitin Prasada a Lok Sabha ticket and made him a minister. What he has done is gross indiscipline and the district Congress committee wants strict action against him and condemns his actions,” the resolution reads.

In March 2019, just before the Lok Sabha elections, there were rumours about Prasada quitting Congress to join BJP. Prasada had then rubbished the claims as “hypothetical”.

Jitin Prasada’s father Jitendra Prasada, a veteran Congress leader, had challenged the leadership of Sonia Gandhi in 1999 and had also contested against her for the post of party chief. Jitendra Prasada lost the bid. He died two years later in 2002.

On Monday, a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting praised Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi and termed the letter writers as “traitors”. The CWC also promised to look into the grievances of the signatories to the letter.