1. Rahul Gandhi urges leaders like Himanta Sarma and Milind Deora to leave Congress due to ideological differences.
2. Sarma, once in the BJP, is now Assam’s Chief Minister; Deora joined Shiv Sena.
3. Gandhi emphasizes commitment to defending Congress principles during a party event in West Bengal.
Baharampur, Feb 03: In the midst of a series of departures from the Congress, Rahul Gandhi has voiced that leaders akin to Himanta Biswa Sarma and Milind Deora should exit the party, asserting that they are not in line with its ideology.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, who defected to the BJP in 2014, is now the Chief Minister of Assam, while Milind Deora recently joined the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde.
Addressing the party’s ‘digital media warriors’ in West Bengal, Gandhi highlighted his commitment to upholding the principles of the Congress.
“I want people like Himanta (Biswa Sarma) and Milind (Deora) to leave. I am perfectly ok with it. Himanta represents a particular kind of politics, that’s not the politics of the Congress party,” he stated.
The Congress ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ led by Gandhi entered West Bengal from Assam on January 25 and is scheduled to reach Jharkhand on Friday.
“Have you heard some of the statements that Himanta had made about Muslims? I don’t want to have anything to do with them, as there are certain values I would like to defend,” he added.
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The resignation of Milind Deora, a former Union minister and ex-MP from Mumbai South, is the latest instance of leaders leaving the Congress for new political paths, often towards the BJP.
Himanta Biswa Sarma joined the BJP before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, and notable leaders such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada, Amarinder Singh, Priyanka Chaturvedi, Hardik Patel, Sushmita Dev, and RPN Singh have all severed ties with the party in recent years.
Commenting on recent statements by BJP leaders regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Gandhi criticized the legislation as a tool used by the BJP to foster division along religious lines.
“These are instruments for the BJP. Their basic idea is to divide the country and create tension between religious communities,” he remarked.
Gandhi’s comments come in response to Union Minister Shantanu Thakur’s announcement on January 29 that the CAA would be enforced nationwide within a week.
Enacted in 2019 by the BJP-led government, the CAA aims to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan who entered India before December 31, 2014.
