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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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
