Shortly after Sushmita Dev resigned from the Congress, the party's senior leader Kapil Sibal on Monday said that said the party is moving on with its "eyes wide shut".
"Sushmita Dev Resigns from the primary membership of our Party. While young leaders leave we ‘oldies’ are blamed for our efforts to strengthen it. The Party moves on with: Eyes Wide Shut," the Rajya Sabha MP said on Twitter.
Sibal, a member of the 'Group of 23' leaders who had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking organisational overhaul, has been demanding that the party be strengthened.
The senior party leader on Sunday welcomed the party chief's initiative of bringing like-minded political parties together, but urged her to strengthen her own party, saying no Opposition unity is possible without it. Sibal, however, said he along with other leaders of the "Group of 23" would continue to demand reforms in the grand old party and keep pushing for its strengthening.
Meanwhile, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said he and other party leaders have tried to reach out to her but her phone was switched off.
"I am unable to speak to her as Sushmita ji's phone is switched off. We have tried to reach out to her. Sushmita ji is a very dear friend. She is extremely versatile, talented and capable. Sonia Gandhi ji and Rahul Gandhi ji have always appreciated it," he told reporters when asked about her resignation.
Surjewala said Dev has a generational relationship with the Congress ideology and Congress family and we treat her as a member of that family.
"I am certain that she is mature enough to take whatever political decision that she takes with an appropriate consideration of her history, her legacy as also her own capacities. I only wish her the best for her future," he said.
Former Congress MP Sushmita Dev resigned from the primary membership of the party in a letter addressed to Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi.
She offered no reason for her quitting the party. In her letter to Gandhi on Sunday, Dev said she was beginning a "new chapter in my life of public service".
Dev also changed her Twitter bio to a former member of the Congress and former chief of the Mahila Congress. She said she is resigning from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress.
"I cherish my three-decade-long association with the Indian National Congress...I hope I have your good wishes as I begin a new chapter in my life of public service," she said in the letter.
(With inputs from Agencies)
