'Wake up or we will lose the party we inherited': Odisha Congress leader writes to Sonia

A senior Congress leader from Odisha has written to former party president Sonia Gandhi, warning against "a fast-slipping legacy and a leadership distanced from the grassroots" and demanding corrective measures.

Former Barabati-Cuttack MLA Mohammad Moqium, in a five-page letter to Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia, said he tried and was unable to meet Rahul Gandhi for three years.

"A century-old legacy is slipping away--not through electoral defeats, but decisions taken within our own walls. If we don't wake up, we risk losing the Congress we inherited," he wrote, asking for introspection on why the Congress has lost six consecutive Assembly elections in Odisha apart from losing Bihar, Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra recently.

"The condition of our party, both in Odisha and across the nation, has become alarming. In Odisha, we have faced six consecutive defeats and at the national level, we have lost three elections. The recent outcomes in Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Kashmir, where our defeats were by staggering margins, are not just electoral setbacks, but reflect a deeper organisational disconnect," Moqium said.

He said a series of “wrong decisions, misguided leadership choices and the continued concentration of responsibility in the wrong hands” have weakened the party. “Rather than correcting these errors, we appear to be repeating them and the consequences are visible to the entire nation. Workers at every level are demoralised. They feel punished for their loyalty. Painful questions are being raised: Are decisions being made with seriousness? Are responsibilities being entrusted to the right people? Does the leadership fully grasp the gravity of this crisis, or are we allowing the party's decline to continue unchecked, with decisions remaining in the wrong hands?" asked Moqium, who won a difficult seat for the party in the 2019 Assembly poll and now his daughter Sofiya Firdaus is an MLA there.

Moqium questioned the appointment of Sarat Patnaik as Odisha state chief saying Patnaik lost six consecutive Lok Sabha elections, sometimes forfeiting his deposit. “Under his leadership, the 2024 elections witnessed the lowest vote share in our history--just 13%. He again lost his own election, once more forfeiting his deposit. In 2025, Bhakta Charan Das was appointed OPCC president. “He, too, has lost three consecutive elections and has been associated with a political ideology historically opposed to ours. His criticisms of the Gandhi family during the JP movement era are still remembered by many," the writer said, asking Sonia for answers.