Congress 'palayan' continues, former Law Minister Ashwani Kumar quits

Dealing yet another blow to the Congress in the middle of the five state assembly elections, former Union Law Minister Ashwani Kumar has resigned from the party.

In his letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Kumar said that he would be best able to subserve larger national causes outside the party-fold given the present circumstances.

Stating that he had given a good amount of thought before ending his 46-year-long association with the Congress, Kumar said he hope to proactively pursue public causes 'inspired by the idea of transformative leadership, based on the dignitarian promise of a liberal democracy envisioned by our freedom fighters'.

In his last post on Twitter, on February 13, Kumar had slammed Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his remarks regarding Rahul Gandhi's paternity. Calling the remarks shameful beyond words, he had termed it as a new low in political discourse and told Sarma to publicly apologize to the nation and atone for his unpardonable words by quitting his office.

Kumar, a veteran Congressman, is the first senior UPA cabinet minister to leave the Congress post its debilitating Lok Sabha election defeat in 2019.

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The Congress has seen a string of exits by leaders, including its youth faces – among them the likes of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, RPN Singh, Sushmita Dev, Priyanka Chaturvedi and Laliteshpati Tripathi – in the last two years. But Kumar’s exit signals that even the old guard is increasingly getting disenchanted with the state of affairs in the party.

Two other veterans — former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro — recently parted ways with the party.

Having been associated with the party for over four decades, Kumar’s exit was also unexpected as he was a staunch loyalist of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. He had strongly defended Gandhi when 23 senior leaders, now popularly known as G-23, wrote to her in August 2020 calling for sweeping changes in the party.

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