Without a shadow of a doubt, the 2022 state Assembly elections proved inefficacious for the Congress Party. Out of the five states for which elections took place, the party could not form the government in even a single one. The most disappointing loss came in the state of Punjab, where the party was unable to come back to power. Instead, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won a staggering majority, winning 92 out of 117 seats. It can be attributed to the internal politics that Congress has been entrenched in for some time now.
It had caused Amarinder Singh to leave the party last year and form his party called the Punjab Lok Congress. A lot of internal politics was also described by various sources, with Navjot Singh Sidhu being at the centre of a lot of it. According to the latest updates, Chand Mahal Ibrahim, a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council, also left the party on Sunday, March 12. Ibrahim, a union minister, resigned from his membership of the party and his MLC seat. It was reported that he wrote a letter to AICC interim president Sonia Gandhi describing the reasons for his bid-adieu from the party.
Why he left
Ibrahim shared his grievances with Sonia Gandhi in a relatively brief letter of three paragraphs. He claimed that he couldn’t speak to her or Rahul Gandhi directly. “Being a senior leader in the party I could not speak to you or Rahul Gandhi directly and place the facts before you. My request had to be routed through in-charge general secretaries and it is well known to you how they respond, on which I do not want to elaborate,” Express-News Service quoted him as saying.
Ibrahim addressed his resignation to Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti and submitted it to KPCC president DK Shivakumar. He also said to have sent a copy of the letter to Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah. The relationship between Ibrahim and Siddaramaiah runs back to twelve years ago when the former had followed the latter to Congress when he quit Janata Dal (Secular) or JDS. He is now planning to join the JDS, predicting Congress to fall apart. However, on entering the JDS one more time, he said, “I have no other condition to join the party except that it should maintain its secular credentials. I do not want Karnataka of sharanas to turn into Uttar Pradesh”.
Deve Gowda on Ibrahim
H. D. Deve Gowda, the patriarch of the JDS and a former Prime Minister of the country, said that while Ibrahim has not formally discussed joining the party yet, he understands why he felt compelled to leave Congress. He said that Ibrahim felt “pained” at the abysmal performance of Congress in the recent polls. “Let us see how things pan out” was his final statement.
The Congress Party is now officially in poor control mode and is looking at a complete overhaul if reports are believed.
