With Khushbu Sundar joining BJP, Congress loses fourth spokesperson in less than one and half years

With Congress spokesperson Khushbu Sundar quitting the party and joining the BJP on Monday, the AICC media department received its fourth jolt in less than one and half year.

Earlier another well-known face Priyanka Chaturvedi, who was one of the most articulate spokespersons of Congress on television, had quit the party in April 2019 and joined the Shiv Sena, which was then part of NDA. Chaturvedi was later awarded with a Rajya Sabha bearth. Even in case of Khushbu Sundar, there is a strong speculation that in some time or later, she could be brought in Rajya Sabha before the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, which is just eight months away.

There are also other similarities in the resignation of the two women spokespersons from the Congress, both of whom earlier aggressively took on the parties, which they joined later. For Priyanka, things became easier after some time as Sena later became the lead partner of the alliance government with Congress and NCP in Maharashtra. So she did not have to suffer embarrassment for long over her anti-BJP or anti-NDA stance in the past. Congress could, however, try to embarrass Sundar for a long time to come, citing her previous strong remarks against the BJP.

But then even Tom Vadakkan, a spokesperson who was AICC media department secretary for years and was considered close to the Gandhi family, had joined the BJP in March 2019, praising the leadership qualities of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was associated with the party for nearly two decades. The Kerala leader had joined the BJP just two months before Lok Sabha polls and on a day when Rahul Gandhi was overseeing poll preparations in the Southern state from where Gandhi contested and later became an MP.

All the three-Khushbu Sundar, Priyanka Chaturvedi and Tom Vadakkan post their resignation and found fault with leaders of the Congress. Sundar, who was associated with Congress for the last six years, said in her resignation letter that some top leaders of the grand old party, who don't have any connection with the ground situation are dictating terms in the party, whereas the members who really work hard are being suppressed.

Chaturvedi, who was sullen on not getting a ticket for Lok Sabha polls in 2019, resigned some time later after an incident in which some party workers suspended for making certain "indecent remarks" against her were restored to their positions after which she alleged that alleged that safety, dignity and empowerment of women promoted by the Congress was not reflected in the actions of some of its members.

Vadakkan had said he was hurt at the situation within the Congress where it was not clear who was the power centre and alleged the party started to "use and throw" leaders like him who were committed to the party.

In July this year, Sanjay Jha after being removed as Congress spokesperson quit from the post of President of Maharashtra unit of All India Professional Congress. He was dropped from AICC spokesperson's list in June this after his newspaper critical of the way in which the party was functioning. Jha was later suspended from the party after he aggressively backed Sachin Pilot during the Pilot-Ashok Gehlot stand off in the party. Jha later said he was "extremely disappointed" and slammed the party leaders for their willingness for a "change" despite successive losses. Jha is yet to join any other party has been rejecting speculation of his joining the BJP.

However, the strongest letter penned by a Congress spokesperson after her resignation was by former Union Minister Jayanthi Natarjan, who had quit in January 2015, writing an explosive letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, asking for reasons why she was made to resign from the post Union Minister for Environment and Forest in December 2013. There were strong buzzs about Natarajan joining the BJP but it did not materialise.

Apart from these, while former AICC media department Chairman Janardan Dwivedi remains sidelined by the party, his son Samir Dwivedi joined the BJP in February this year.