No one said that Ashwini Kumar was a very popular public leader. But the veteran Supreme Court lawyer has been so important to the leadership for so long that many have called him the “theoretical leader” of Congress. Ashwini’s defection and his reaction once again pointed to the fact that the rift in the central leadership of the Congress, which had come out to face the BJP in the five-state polls, was gradually widening.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Congress leader from Kashmir, was the first to open his mouth in favor of the soft-spoken Ashwini’s resignation. Azad said, “It is very worrying that one leader after another is leaving the party in this way.”
Congress deputy leaders in the Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma and Lok Sabha MP Manish Tiwari almost unanimously said that the party leadership should look into the matter. In other words, in this way, they noticed the importance of the resignation of one leader after another and blamed the leadership for this incident.
Coincidentally, Azad, Anand Sharma, and Manish Tiwari are all members of a group known as the G-23, which has been demanding the removal of party leaders. But many Congress leaders who have never cast a shadow over the group agree with them.
