Congress Joint Secretary In-charge NSUI Ruchi Gupta Quits Post, Cites Delays in Organisational Changes

Ruchi Gupta, the Congress joint secretary in-charge of its student wing NSUI, resigned from her post on Saturday citing delays in organisational appointments. Her resignation came on a day Congress president Sonia Gandhi met a group of party leaders, including some who had written to her seeking complete organisational overhaul. During the meeting, they discussed ways to strengthen the party at all levels and it was decided to hold conclaves similar to Panchmarhi and Shimla to chalk out the way ahead.

“I regret to announce that I have resigned. I am grateful to Rahul ji and Sonia ji for giving me this opportunity,” Gupta, a key Rahul Gandhi appointee, tweeted. “Congress has a crucial role in the Indian polity today but,” she said, tagging two Op-Eds by her — one which was published on Saturday and the other from last year.

In a message posted by her on the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) office bearers’ WhatsApp group, Gupta said, “I am writing to you to announce that I have resigned. “As you know, important organisational changes have remained pending for very long: the national committee took 1 year 3 months; state president orders have remained pending for months.” “Many other state units are waiting for reorganisation to make space for new activists. These continuing delays by the GS(O) (general secretary organisation K C Venugopal) are damaging the organisation but in the present circumstances, it is not possible to escalate repeatedly to Congress President. The situation has thus become untenable,” she said.

In her Op-Ed published in the Hindu on Saturday, Gupta said the Congress needs to address issues of party organisation, grassroots level connect and establish a “strong top-down leadership”. She said she believes only Rahul Gandhi could lead the party and asserted that “this is not a sycophantic statement – if any other leader had to emerge in the party, he would have done so over the last year”.

“Instead, different factions prefer status quo rather than allowing one group to ascend and upset the balance of power for everyone. Organisational power thus continues to reside in Mr Gandhi. The way then to revive the Congress and consolidate this power is one and the same – it’s full and frontal exercise,” she wrote in the Op-Ed.

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