Shashi Tharoor backs call for change of guard in Congress, Sanjay Nirupam disagrees

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday backed former parliamentarian Sandeep Dikshit’s comments calling for elections to choose the party’s next leader.

In an interview to The Indian Express the day before, Dikshit had accused senior Congress leaders of failing to find a new president

because they were “scared who will bell the cat”. Rahul Gandhi had stepped down after the Lok Sabha election debacle in May, and former President Sonia Gandhi took over as interim chief on August 10.

“There are at least six-eight members who are capable of leading the party,” Dikshit told the newspaper. “Sometimes you want inaction because you don’t want a certain action to happen. I’m actually feeling rather dismayed by our senior leaders. They must come up,” he added. “ I think it is time for them to come up and go the extra mile for their party.”

The former MP said leaders such as Amarinder Singh, Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath, AK Antony, P Chidambaram, Salman Khurshid and Ahmed Patel can “intellectually contribute” to the selection process at the central and state level. “All of them have done great for the Congress,” Dikshit added. “They are in the evening of their politics, they probably have another four or five years to go. I...

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