New Delhi: Senior leader Kapil Sibal, who announced on May 25 that he had quit the Congress, his party of 30 years, said it was “always difficult to move on, but everyone has to think about themselves” at some point.
“I thought the time has come for me to move on and be an independent voice in parliament. I did not want to be hanging on to the coattails of any party,” Kapil Sibal told NDTV.
“It is not easy to quit a party after being associated with it for 30-31 years”.
After quitting, Sibal filed nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha as an independent candidate with support from the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party
“There is no employer-employee kind of relation in a political party. I had to take a personal decision on what I wished to do ahead. I need to raise my voice in an independent manner in the Parliament and if I am getting that opportunity, I want to take that,” he told IANS.
He said he will work to bring all political parties on one platform to fight the BJP in the 2024 national election. But is it possible to have an opposition coalition without Congress?
“We will try to get everybody together on a common platform. All political parties. Congress is a political party, isn’t it,” Sibal replied.
Sibal was the driving force behind the “G-23” or the group of 23 dissenters who had demanded sweeping organizational and leadership changes in the Congress, in a letter to Sonia Gandhi two years ago.
Over the past few months, the veteran had been increasingly vocal and acerbic about the Gandhis, even saying that “the leadership is in cuckooland”.
Prominent leaders who quit Congress in 2021-22
Punjab Congress Chief SUNIL JAKHAR
Former Law Minister ASHWANI KUMAR
Former Union Minister R P N SINGH
Gujarat Congress working president HARDIK PATEL
Punjab ex-Chief Minister AMARINDER SINGH
Congress leader JITIN PRASADA
