Sonia Gandhi should dissolve the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and Rahul Gandhi should get over his disappointment and return to decision-making in the party, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam said after a massive twist this morning in which the BJP's Devendra Fadnavis took oath with a deputy, Ajit Pawar of the NCP, which had been collaborating with the Shiv Sena and the Congress.
Mr Nirupam said the coup had left Congress "defamed" as it was forced to attempt a "back-door approach" to power.
"What advice did the CWC give Sonia Gandhi? I urge Sonia Gandhi to dissolve the CWC, they cannot be trusted anymore. My advice is that a new CWC take shape under Rahul Gandhi's leadership, he will work on ethics and have the party's interest in mind, not work like this by taking a backdoor approach," Sanjay Nirupam said.
This is an I-told-you-so moment for Mr Nirupam, who had all along advised the Congress against any alliance with the ideologically opposed Shiv Sena, his former party and a long-term BJP ally.
Mr Nirupam said the Congress leaders tasked with negotiating a Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance to keep the BJP out had no clue of the realities of Maharashtra.
"Ahmed Patel and KC Venugopal are Delhi-based. The person most involved in Maharashtra was Mallikarjun Kharge. How could he give such faulty inputs to the Congress? It is time to question these leaders," said Mr Nirupam, who has been at the heart of a bitter feud within the Maharashtra Congress.
He also lashed out at NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who claims he was unaware of his nephew Ajit Pawar's move.
"Rahul Gandhi-ji had once said power is poison. Well, Pawar is also poison," said Mr Nirupam.
"The mandate that the people had given the Congress was as clear as it could be - that we sit in the opposition. By doing what they were trying has only shown the party in very poor light and has completely exposed the Congress. The Sena's stain has tarnished us," he added.
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