After withdrawing from LS poll race, Congress national spokesperson Gupta now quits party
Ahmedabad (PTI): In a setback to the Congress ahead of the parliamentary elections, its national spokesperson Rohan Gupta on Friday resigned from primary membership and all other posts of the party citing "humiliation" and "character assassination".
Gupta, who had been given a Lok Sabha ticket from the Ahmedabad East seat by the Congress, withdrew from the race last Monday citing his father's ill health.
In a letter to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Gupta said, "I hereby, resign from all posts and primary membership of the Congress party with immediate effect." He also posted a copy of the resignation letter on X.
"I am deeply pained to inform you that constant humiliation and character assassination by one of the senior leaders connected to the Communications department of the party for last two years (which many senior party leaders are aware of) and now at the time of personal crisis has compelled me to take this decision," he said in the letter.
"His behaviour has caused serious mental agony and stress and has compelled me to resign from the party with a broken heart to protect my self-esteem," he said.
In a separate written post on X, along with the copy of the resignation letter, Gupta said he was not afraid of anything but needed to raise his voice when there was a "systematic conspiracy" to betray him.
"My humbleness should not be considered as my weakness. I have learnt my lessons the hard way," he wrote.
He went on to say, "The person who has humiliated me for the last two years, the person who has not budged from doing it in last three days, I am sure that he will not refrain from doing it in future and nobody will be able to stop him. But now I am not ready to take any more assault on my self-esteem."
Gupta said he chose to quit the party with a broken heart, calling the decision "very difficult but necessary to protect" his self-respect.
"The same leader has also damaged the party with his arrogant and rude behaviour. Due to his extreme leftist mindset he ensured party's silence on insult of Sanatan Dharma which hurt me personally and I was forcefully stopped from opposition insult of Sanatan Dharma on national TV," he wrote.
This has done serious damage to the party's image and the morale of Congress leaders, said Gupta.
"The leadership should not ignore such activities by this kind of leaders which leaves imprints of insult on the souls of honest workers and leaders and compels them to leave party," he said.
According to Congress leader Rohan Gupta, he decided to withdraw his candidature from the Ahmedabad East Lok Sabha seat due to his father Rajkumar Gupta's reluctance to let him contest from the constituency that he represented as the candidate of the same party two decades back.
Gupta's father was the one who put his foot down and stopped him from contesting the upcoming elections despite the former's desire, the Congress spokesperson had told mediapersons earlier.
His father was not happy with his son's decision to contest the election, and to pressure him, he even resigned from Congress a few days before his withdrawal and severed his ties with the party he was associated with for decades.
He even fell unconscious and had to be rushed to the ICU where he refused to take injections, asking his son to give in writing that he won't contest the election, Gupta had said then.
Gupta, however, did not disclose what exactly made his father oppose his candidature.
The Gupta senior had unsuccessfully contested the 2004 Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate from the then Ahmedabad seat, which after the reorganisation of 2009 became split into Ahmedabad East and Ahmedabad West seats.
Lok Sabha elections in Gujarat will be held in a single phase on May 7. In the 2019 elections, the BJP won all 26 seats in the state.
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Bihar CM Nitish Kumar takes oath as Rajya Sabha member
New Delhi (PTI): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday took oath as a member of Rajya Sabha, marking the end of his two-decade rule in the eastern state and paving the way for a new chief minister.
The oath was administered by Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan in his chamber at a brief ceremony. The Chairman later welcomed him as a member of the Upper House and also on his return in Parliament.
Kumar took the oath in Hindi in the presence of Union Minister J P Nadda, who is also leader of the house, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Panchayati Raj Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ram Nath Thakur and Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal.
Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary was also present at the oath-taking.
JDU leader and party's working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh, besides BJP MP and former union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy and BJP chief whip in Lok Sabha Sanjay Jaiswal, were among those present during the oath-taking.
"Vice President of India and Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan, administered the oath to Shri Nitish Kumar as an elected Member of Rajya Sabha, from Bihar, at Parliament House today," the Vice President's office said on X, while sharing pictures of the oath-taking.
After the oath-taking, Kumar came out of the new Parliament building and spoke about the time he was a member of the Lok Sabha and sat in the old Parliament building.
As Kumar assumes the Rajya Sabha role, it marks the end of his long two-decade rule in Bihar. Kumar will soon resign as chief minister and the NDA is likely to elect a new chief minister of Bihar on April 14.
He has already resigned as a member of the State Legislative Council on March 30 after he was elected to Rajya Sabha.
The JD(U) supremo was elected to the Upper House of Parliament on March 16, and he had to quit as an MLC in the 14-day period after his election.
