New Delhi: Days after resigning from Congress after decades long association, veteran politician and senior lawyer Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said that pointed out that no political party in the country gives liberty to its leaders which’s the tragedy of Indian Parliament, adding that there is no concept of a whip in any other parliament across the world.
“No political party gives liberty to leaders which’s the tragedy of Indian Parliament. There is no concept of a whip in any other parliament across the world. We may have a different point of view but we can’t express them & are often confined while being in a party,” Sibal said while speaking to news agency ANI.
The long-time Congress leader, announced that he had resigned from the grand old party on May 16 and on Wednesday filed his nomination from the Rajya Sabha as a Samajwadi Party-backed Independent candidate from Uttar Pradesh.
Despite announcing his exit from Congress, the politician said that he dreams of bringing all opposition parties together in the fight against the BJP in 2024. “I still say that we all hold to the ideology of Congress which is the ideology of an inclusive India. This is the ideology of the entire opposition and we will move forward on the basis of that,” he said.
In a surprise move, Sibal went to the Uttar Pradesh assembly premises to file his papers with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Ram Gopal Yadav and other senior leaders by his side. Sibal’s tenure as a Rajya Sabha MP ends of June 4.
“I have filed the nomination as an Independent candidate. I thank Akhileshji for supporting me,” the prominent member of the G23′ grouping of leaders told reporters earlier in the day.
Sibal is the fifth high-profile leader to quit the Congress in last four months. The list includes RPN Singh, Ashwini Kumar, Sunil Jakhad and Hardik Patel. Over the recent past, Sibal was in loggerheads with the Congress pushing for sweeping reforms in the grand old party on the backdrop of several election debacles suffered by it.
“I had a deep relationship with the Congress. It was for 30-31 years. This is not a small thing. I joined the Congress because of Rajivji (former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi). You must be thinking, how one can go from the Congress after 31 years. There must be something Sometimes such decisions are to be taken,” Sibal said.
Elections for 11 Rajya Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh are underway and the Samajwadi Party is likely to get two more seats, while the remaining will be bagged by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
(This inputs from agencies.)