Ex-Congress MP Shakeel Ahmad Fears Attack On His House Under Rahul Gandhi's Order

Patna: Rift within the Congress party has come to the fore with former Congress MP and senior leader Shakeel Ahmad claiming he has been "secretly informed" by his party colleagues that national leadership of the party has issued orders to carry out attacks at his residences in Patna and Madhubani on Tuesday under the pretext of burning an effigy. This is against the principles of democracy, he said.

Taking to his X handle, Ahmad, a three-time MLA and two-time MP from Bihar, raised questions on whether such an order was issued under senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's orders. "Now my information has proven absolutely correct. Many thanks to my old associates of Congress. There is a saying in Bihar: Old friends are the ones who come in handy. Is this happening without Rahulji's orders?" he wrote.

In an earlier post, Ahmad wrote, "Just now, some Congress colleagues have secretly informed me that the Congress national leadership has ordered the Bihar Congress/Youth Congress to attack my residences in Patna and Madhubani on January 27, under the pretext of burning of an effigy. This is against the principles of democracy."

Commenting on Ahmad's statement, Congress leader Rashid Alvi said, "Meeting Gandhi is not that easy. The Congress is continuously ignoring the Muslim leadership, even though Muslims in India are voting for the Congress. Muslim leadership is being marginalised in the party. Shakeel Ahmad Khan, Roshan Baig, Naseemuddin Siddiqui, and Yusuf Abrahani are recent examples of this."

JDU leader Rajiv Ranjan Prasad said, "The way he (Shakeel Ahmad) has expressed his pain and anguish, and after the recent revelations, what we want to say is that as Gandhi has become stronger, the Congress has become weaker. The Congress's base is shrinking everywhere.

"For democracy to be strong, it is also very important for the Opposition to be effective and strong. There is no internal democracy within the party, Gandhi is afraid of popular leaders. These various allegations are, in fact, the thoughts of every Congress leader and worker, just as Shakeel Ahmad has expressed," the JDU leader said.

In a podcast interview earlier, Ahmad had called Gandhi the "most insecure and cowardly leader" alleging, "Rahul Gandhi feels threatened by senior leaders with a strong grassroot base in the party, dislikes leaders who don't consider him their 'boss,' and wants to maintain unilateral control over the party." Ahmad also claimed that Mallikarjun Kharge is only president in name, while the real decisions are made by Rahul Gandhi.

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