Mumbai: Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam knows he is not popular among local leaders, but he is party chief Rahul Gandhi’s choice, and that’s all that counts for him.
“Everyone has seen this [the opposition to him within Mumbai Congress],” Nirupam told ThePrint in an interview.
“In the entire country, I am probably the only such regional Congress president against whom multiple people have spoken, saying ‘Nirupam hatao (remove Nirupam)’,” he added.
“People don’t generally say this. And those who said it [are] very big, senior leaders. I could have reacted if I wanted to, but I didn’t because Congress president Rahul Gandhi has sent me here to see the party’s work,” said Nirupam, who assumed the reins as Mumbai Congress president in 2015.
Nirupam, however, added that he did not expect the infighting within the Mumbai Congress to have any impact on the party’s poll performance, saying “the average voter does not care about it”.
‘Hurt a bit’
As city Congress chief, Nirupam said, he had promised Gandhi that he would put the party in an “agitational mode”, build a base of karyakartas (workers) in every lane of Mumbai, and “re-energise” cadres who were demotivated by the Congress’ decimation in the city, once its stronghold, in the 2014 polls.
“If they said ‘Nirupam hatao’, Nirupam kept driving the movement on the road,” he said, “That was the mandate given to me by my leadership. Sometimes I thought this is good, it is giving me inspiration to work.
“If I have to be honest,” he added, “I am not a saint, I am human. And these things did hurt for a bit.”
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‘Infighting does not matter to the common voter’
Mumbai, which is also the city where the Congress was born, accounts for six of Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats and was for long considered a stronghold of the grand old party.
However, the party was wiped out in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, with even senior candidates like Priya Dutt and Milind Deora biting the dust.
Congress’ Mumbai unit has been infamous for infighting and factionalism, which came to the fore once again last month when former MP Deora tweeted about it.
While I do not intend to discuss internal party affairs in public, remarks made in a recent interview have forced me to repeat my strong commitment towards the need for the Mumbai Congress to remain a symbol of Mumbai’s diversity and to strengthen its social fabric.
— Milind Deora मिलिंद देवरा (@milinddeora) February 5, 2019
Last year, a group of Congress leaders met Mallikarjun Kharge, the party in-charge for Maharashtra, demanding Nirupam’s removal.
Earlier, former Mumbai Congress chief and MP Gurudas Kamat had a public spat with Nirupam on social media after the party suffered a drubbing in the 2017 Mumbai civic polls.
Talking to ThePrint, Nirupam said the cracks within the party were more about competition than infighting.
“Every person feels he should fight elections, win elections, move ahead. Some get the opportunity, some don’t,” he added. “That sense of competition should remain and is there, and I am not against it.”
However, whatever the cause, Nirupam said, factionalism within the party won’t be an issue in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
“I don’t think this becomes a very big issue,” he added. “To an extent, it is OK that it is a topic of discussion, it becomes a part of the narrative. But for the voter, how does it matter who is against whom?
“They only look at the fact that they want to vote for the Congress and have a Congress government, increase Rahul Gandhi’s strength,” said Nirupam, a former Shiv Sena member.
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‘Induction of Congress defectors more shameful for BJP’
Questions to the Congress about party leaders joining the BJP were all very well, Nirupam said, but the defections raised some uncomfortable posers for the BJP as well.
“If BJP national president Amit Shah is such a big Chanakya and says the BJP has become the biggest party in the country, has made 20 crore people its members, then why do you (the BJP) not find candidates during election?” he said. “You take candidates from the Congress. This is embarrassing for you.”
Referring to the BJP’s most recent Congress induction, Sujay Vikhe Patil, son of Maharashtra leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Nirupam said the BJP must introspect on why it was getting so excited about the membership of a “young boy” with no political or electoral experience.
“If he was a big leader who had a following and a strong influencing capacity, I can understand he would have been a big catch,” said Nirupam.
“But you induct a politician’s son with no experience and for that you move your local leader, who is a three-time MP,” Nirupam added.
The BJP is looking to field Sujay, who defected last week, from the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency, which has been represented by the BJP’s Dilip Gandhi for three terms, in the 13th, 15th and 16th Lok Sabha. The BJP wanted a different candidate for the seat after party surveys suggested Gandhi may lose the constituency on account of anti-incumbency.
Nirupam said that the trend over the past few elections suggested that all six of Mumbai’s parliamentary seats voted alike. In 2004 and 2009, all six seats voted for the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party and, in 2014, all chose the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Shiv Sena alliance.
“This time, it looks like all six will vote for us,” he added.
If candidates like Shri Milind Deora and Ms Priya Dutt win, it will be despite – not because of – Sanjay Nirupam. Mumbaikars are a civilised lot and they do not associate the Congress with street agitations.