'Not Dissenters but Proponents of Revival': Congress Leaders Tankha, Sibal React after Criticism over Letter

Day after the stormy CWC meeting, which saw the party divided on the leadership issue, Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh Vivek Tankha on Tuesday said that the signatories of the letter are not dissenters but proponents of revival.

“Friends we are not dissenters but proponents of revival :: the letter was not a challenge to leadership but a parchment of action to strengthen the party :: universally truth is best defence whether it be Court or Public Affairs :: history acknowledges the brave & not the timid,” Tankha wrote on Twitter.

Tankha was refering to the letter written by 23 senior leaders to party chief Sonia Gandhi, asking her for “sweeping changes” in the party. The timing of the said letter was questioned by Rahul Gandhi. Besides Tankha, the list of signatories includes five former chief ministers, sitting MPs Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari, members of Congress Working Committee and over a dozen former union ministers.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal also tweeted on Tuesday, saying it’s not about a post but It’s about the country which matters most to him.

Notably, on Monday Sibal had first hit back at Rahul Gandhi for his reported accusation that senior Congress leaders who called for a change in party leadership were “dissenters” and “colluding with the BJP” but later withdrew it after being told that Gandhi never said what was attributed to him.

“Was informed by Rahul Gandhi personally that he never said what was attributed to him. I therefore withdraw my tweet,” Sibal tweeted, soon after Congress spokesperson also issued a denial stating that Gandhi had not stated or even alluded to such a charge during the Congress Working Committee meeting.

At the meeting, Sonia Gandhi had offered to resign after the dissenting letter was made public. It was, however, decided that she would remain the interim president till an All India Congress Committee (AICC) session is called and the next full-time president elected. The party has reportedly set a six-month deadline to finish the process of electing its next chief.

The meeting also witnessed an outpour from all the nearly 50 Congress leaders, including its four chief ministers, of support in favour of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, who were urged to lead the party in the coming years.