Minutes after complaining about former party chief Rahul Gandhi accusing dissident Congressmen of colluding with their arch-rivals, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad - two key members of Congress admitted on Monday that Gandhi's remarks had been falsely attributed to him.
Sibal, who had launched a scathing attack through Twitter on Rahul earlier Monday, later deleted his post, saying he was personally informed by Gandhi himself that he had never made such a remark.
Was informed by Rahul Gandhi personally that he never said what was attributed to him .
— Kapil Sibal (@KapilSibal) August 24, 2020
I therefore withdraw my tweet .
Gandhi has been connected to an explosive statement by media outlets in which he was reported of accusing signatories to the letter of "colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party”.
Gandhi was reported to be furious at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Monday, saying that "dissidents" were colluding with the BJP while questioning the timing of the letter written by top party leaders targeting Gandhi's leadership, reported NDTV.
Following the reports of Rahul blaming the signatories, Sibal lashed out in a now-deleted tweet and said he has made effort to defend the party on various sensitive occasions. Sibal is one of the signatories of the letter.
“Rahul Gandhi says “ we are colluding with BJP “ Succeeded in Rajasthan High Court defending the Congress Party Defending party in Manipur to bring down BJP Govt. Last 30 years have never made a statement in favour of BJP on any issue Yet “ we are colluding with the BJP “!” he said in the deleted Tweet.
Veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also clarified that he did not offer to resign.
He was quoted by NDTV as saying if he is found guilty of mixing with the BJP then he would quit the party.
In a letter addressed to party chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday, 23 Congressmen urged her to reboot the leadership of the party, saying that the current state and performance of the party had demoralised the organisation and that it was lacking direction.
Sonia Gandhi took charge as the party's interim chief after Rahul Gandhi resigned from the position, taking responsibility for Congress' poor performance in the 2019 general elections. Since then, there has been a call within the Gandhi family-led party to change leadership in order to revive the organisation.
