Another high profile exit from Congress; great grandson of Rajagopalachari CR Kesavan quits party

Aditi Tandon

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New Delhi, February 23

The Congress on Thursday witnessed another high profile exit with CR Kesavan, the great grandson of the last Governor General of India, C Rajagopalachari, resigning, citing dissipation of values for which he had joined and served the Congress for over 20 years.

Kesavan, a former AICC secretary, was welcomed in his move by Anil Antony, the son of former defence minister and Congress veteran AK Antony.

Anil Antony had resigned from the Congress recently, slamming the party’s position on the BBC documentary “India: The Modi question.”

Wish you continue your work in public life with utmost integrity and love of 🇮🇳, once peerlessly done by C Rajagopalachari ji.
This letter echoes thoughts shared by many within a party hijacked by a coterie with little understanding of public consciousness or national interest. https://t.co/uulkwDzDoR

— Anil K Antony (@anilkantony) February 23, 2023

Kesavan, who served as vice president of the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development at Sriperumbudur in the rank of a state minister, sent a resignation letter to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on the eve of the AICC’s 85th plenary, being held in Raipur from tomorrow to discuss the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The timing of Kesavan’s resignation could not be worse for a party seeking to unite the opposition against Prime Minister Narendra Modi when it has been unable to keep its own flock together.

“I am truly sad to say that for a while now I have not seen any vestiges of the values that made me work for the Congress for over two decades. I can no longer in good conscience say that I concur with what the party presently symbolizes, stands for or seeks to propagate. That is why I had recently declined an organizational responsibility at the national level and also refrained from participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra. It is time for me to chart a new path,” Kesavan said in his resignation letter.

CR Kesavan said he had not spoken to anyone about joining any other party yet and did not know what would unfold next.

The former AICC secretary however clarified he would work to serve the country through a political platform.

Importantly, the Congress under Rahul Gandhi has taken a position to “let those who wish to leave, leave.”

In fact, addressing social media workers of the party in 2021, Rahul Gandhi had said, “Those who are scared can leave the Congress and those who are not afraid can join.”

The party’s position has been one of letting everything come to ashes so far as the current churn goes and then “like a phoenix rise from those ashes.”

The question is will the phoenix get to rise from the ashes?

The Congress has lost 40 of the last 45 state elections; and is in power only in Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh with the last two states set to vote this year.

In the Lok Sabha the Congress has 52 MPs out of 543 total MPs, far lower than the ruling BJP’s 303.

THE SAGA OF HIGH PROFILE EXITS FROM THE CONGRESS

Nov 2014: Former union shipping minister GK Vasan

Sept 2015: Former Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma

Feb 2019: Former Union External Affairs Minister SM Krishna

March 2020: Former union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia

June 2021: Former union minister Jitin Prasad

Nov 2021: Former Punjab CM Amarinder Singh

Jan 2022: Former union minister RPN Singh

May 2022: Former Punjab Congress President Sunil Jakhar and former union minister Kapil Sibal

August 2022: Former leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha and ex J&K CM Ghulam Nabi Azad

Jan 2023: Anil Antony, son of former union defence minister AK Antony

Feb 2023: CR Kesavan, great grandson of C Rajagopalachari