Days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, the party's senior leader Kapil Sibal on Tuesday demanded that the "Gandhis should step aside from the leadership role and give a chance to someone else to lead the party".
Since the poll debacle of 2014 the Congress has lost elections continuously except on a few occasions, he said, and added that "the CWC has reposed faith in the party leadership but those outside the CWC feel otherwise as many have left the party and new leaders should be given a chance to lead the party".
"Leadership is in cuckoo land. I want a 'Sab ki Congress'. Some want a 'Ghar ki Congress'," Sibal told the Indian Express in an interview.
Meanwhile, Sibal invited the wrath from fellow Congress leaders after he criticised the Gandhis.
Party's Lok Sabha whip Manickam Tagore Tuesday hit out at Sibal for his remarks and accused him of speaking the language of the RSS-BJP.
Tagore, a staunch Rahul Gandhi loyalist, said the RSS and the BJP want the Gandhis to be out of leadership position in the party in order to kill the Congress party and destroy the Idea of India.
"Why the RSS and BJP wants Nehru-Gandhi's out of the leadership? Because without Gandhi's leadership Congress will be become Janata party. It's easy to kill Congress then it's easy to destroy the idea of India (sic)," Tagore said on Twitter.
"Kapil Sibal knows it but why he is speaking the language of RSS/BJP," he asked.
Congress leader Anil Shastri said the party will become weak without the Gandhis.
"Those who don't want the Gandhi family to lead the party don't know that without them the party will weaken and a weak Congress will be fatal for the democracy," he said in a tweet in Hindi.
Later talking to news agency IANS he said, "There is need for course correction but this should be done with the Gandhis at the helm, and the Congress can't compete on communal agenda of the BJP and those who are attacking the party should tell how they want to take the party forward." "The BJP invokes emotion but the Congress is committed to a certain ideology and we have to move forward with it," he added.
Congress national spokesperson Pawan Khera said Sibal should fight elections for the post of Congress president instead of making public comments against the leadership.
"Dr Harshvardhan did not ask you to step aside from Chandni Chowk. He fought an election and defeated you Kapil Sibal. Those who want to lead Congress are free to fight upcoming election for the position of party president instead of chanting everyday against current leadership," Khera tweeted.
(With IANS inputs)
