"Hurt by silence when...": Gourav Vallabh opens up on deserting Congress ship ahead of LS polls

In his first reaction after severing all ties with the party, former Congress leader Gourav Vallabh said on Thursday he was 'hurt' over its silence when some bigshots in the party and its partners in the INDIA bloc spewed venom on Sanatan Dharma.

In his first reaction after severing all ties with the party, former Congress leader Gourav Vallabh said on Thursday he was 'hurt' over its silence when some bigshots in the party and its partners in the INDIA bloc spewed venom on Sanatan Dharma. Speaking to ANI on Thursday after uncoupling himself from the grand old party, Vallabh said, "I wrote to (Congress national president) Mallikarjun Kharge, voicing all my misgivings and emotions. I was hurt by my party's silence when some prominent leaders in the INDIA bloc made unsavoury remarks against Sanatan. I also publicly opposed our party's stand on Ram Mandir (the 'Pran Pratishtha' of Lord Ram Lalla in Ayodhya)."

He added that the ideas of economic liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, which the Congress openly advocated in the previous years were now being opposed by senior leaders in the grand old party. "I am a professor of Arthashastra (economics). The ideas of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation, which were advocated by (former prime ministers) Dr Manmohan Singh and PV Narsimha Rao, are now being opposed by top leaders," the former Congress leader said.

Significantly, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi is among the most strident critics of the Centre's push for privatisation under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "The Congress seems to have made a habit of abusing the country's wealth creators day and night," Vallabh said.

He added that he tried flagging his concerns in connection with party affairs on several occasions but issues remained unaddressed. "I had clearly articulated my concerns and raised them on several party forums as well as other places internally," Vallabh told ANI.

Dealing a numbing blow to the grand old party ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Vallabh, a prominent face of the Congress in Rajasthan, resigned from the primary membership of the party earlier on Thursday. Taking to his official handle on social media platform X, he posted the two-page resignation letter that he sent to the party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge.

He added that he was quitting the party as he was not feeling "comfortable with the directionless way in which the Congress party is moving forward". "I do not feel comfortable with the directionless way in which the Congress party is moving forward today. I can neither raise anti-Sanatana slogans nor abuse the wealth creators of the country. I am resigning from all posts and primary membership of the Congress party," Vallabh posted from his X handle.

Vallabh was on the Congress ticket in last year's Rajasthan assembly elections, which the grand old party lost to the BJP. (ANI)

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