'It's Our Duty': Cong Tries to Pacify Anand Sharma After He Quit From Key Panel

AICC incharge for Himachal Pradesh Rajeev Shukla was sent by party chief Sonia Gandhi to pacify Sharma.

A day after Congress leader Anand Sharma stepped down from the chairmanship of the party's Himachal Pradesh steering committee, interim party president Sonia Gandhi on Monday, 22 August, tasked the All India Congress Committee (AICC) incharge of the state, Rajeev Shukla, to resolve the matter.

After meeting Gandhi at her residence on Monday, Shukla paid a visit to Sharma.

"Anand Sharma is a member and senior leader of the Congress Working Committee. He is a member of the committee on political affairs and a member of the state election committee. It is our duty to meet him. We have good relations with him and he is dedicated to the party," Shukla said after the meeting, as per news agency ANI.

He also said that Sharma's resignation is an internal matter and that the latter was not "dissatisfied" with the Congress as he himself said that he would campaign for the party.

Sharma's Resignation

Announcing his resignation on Twitter, Sharma had said that he is a "lifelong congressman" and that the Congress' ideology runs in his blood but added that "given the continuing exclusion and insults, as a self-respecting person, I was left with no choice."

His resignation came days after veteran Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad stepped down from the campaign committee as well as the Jammu and Kashmir political affairs committee.

Both Sharma and Azad were among the 23 leaders who had written to Sonia Gandhi in August 2020, demanding an election to the post of party president as well as the Congress Working Committee (CWC). The group came to be known as 'G-23'.

Sharma, in his letter to Sonia Gandhi, reportedly said that he was "ignored" in party consultations ahead of the Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh. The leader also wrote that his "self respect is non-negotiable."

His decision ahead of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections, slated to take place in November this year. His resignation is likely to hurt the Congress party's efforts to do well in the polls and defeat the ruling BJP in the state.

(With inputs from ANI.)