'Rahul Gandhi Unfit To Lead,' Says Delhi Congress Leader Barkha Shukla Singh

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi's leadership was questioned today by yet another leader of the Congress in Delhi, Barkha Shukla Singh, as she resigned as chief of the party's state women's wing. Unlike senior leader Arvinder Singh Lovely, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP earlier this week, Ms Singh has not left the party. Yet. But she seemed to prepare ground for that by tweeting a press statement that lashed out at Mr Gandhi and the Congress' Delhi chief Ajay Maken

"Senior most leaders of the party, I would not like to name anybody, are also of the view that Rahul Gandhi is mentally unfit to lead the party but choose not to say it because of reasons that are unknown to me," Ms Singh said.

She also had a complaint common to several Congress leaders who have rebelled in recent days - Mr Gandhi's disinterest in their problems. "Why does Raul Gandhi shy away from meeting party leaders who ask him questions? He is only interested in sycophants and not leaders who reason, question and ask," she said, alleging that the party has lost several senior leaders for that reason.

As he joined the BJP, Mr Lovely too had expressed deep dissatisfaction with the Congress leadership, including Mr Gandhi and the way the party is being run. He was sharply critical of Ajay Maken, who has a wave of rebellion on his hands just before crucial civic elections on Sunday, in which the Congress hopes to resurrect itself in Delhi after multiple washouts.

Ms Singh launched a blistering attack on Mr Maken, who she alleged has "misbehaved, not only with me but also with several office bearers of the Mahila Congress." Their plea to Mr Gandhi, she said, "fell on deaf ears."

A former chief of Delhi's women's panel, Ms Singh said she was resigning because, "The Congress party under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and Ajay Maken have only used the issue of empowerment of women and women security to gather votes....The issue means nothing to them."

Other Delhi leaders of the Congress have also complained about Mr Maken, who was hand-picked to be the party's Delhi chief with a brief to pull the party out of a political morass.

"No one listens," was the plaint of Delhi Congress veteran AK Walia, who had threatened to resign last month over the selection of candidates for the civic polls. Mr Lovely endorsed that. He has also predicted that more people will quit the party.

Rahul Gandhi has earlier been accused by other partymen of ignoring them. It proved expensive in Assam, where the Congress lost Himanta Biswa Sarma, a key political strategist who steered the BJP to its first ever win of the state last year, months after he joined the party. Mr Biswa had squarely blamed Mr Gandhi for his quitting the Congress, alleging that the party vice president paid more attention to his pet than him when he went to meet him in Delhi.