What Sibal’s exit signifies

It punctures the party’s revitalisation narrative and may diminish its stature in the Opposition camp

For the third time this month, the Congress has suffered a jolt in the form of the departure of a senior leader. Former minister Kapil Sibal announced on Wednesday that he has resigned from the party and filed his nomination as an independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha (RS), with support from the Samajwadi Party (SP). His exit, arguably the most high-profile in the party in two years, comes at a critical time for the Congress, which is trying to rejuvenate its ranks after a clutch of demoralising losses. Mr Sibal snapped his threedecade-old ties with the Congress after nearly two years of stormy exchanges as the de facto head of a group of leaders pushing for internal reforms and elections. He was the rare Congress leader who publicly questioned the party’s leadership and first family, the Gandhis. His exit will strike a blow to the morale of the so-called G-23, which has only managed to make modest headway in its exchanges with the party’s leadership.

Mr Sibal’s departure also punctures the narrative of revitalisation that the Congress has been seeking to put forth after its Udaipur Chintan Shivir (which he was not a part of). It remains to be seen if his exit has any electoral ramifications for the party but Mr Sibal’s exit is sure to have an effect on the party’s churn and the limited successes of the G-23 in engaging with the leadership. Two G-23 members — Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma — found a place in Sonia Gandhi’s key political affairs group announced earlier this week. But no G-23 leaders were included in the newly set up taskforce. With its most vocal leader gone, will the other leaders move closer to the leadership?

The fact that the SP accommodated Mr Sibal as a member from its quota of Rajya Sabha seats, and didn’t even insist that he join the party, doesn’t augur well for efforts to stitch together a unified Opposition. It hints at the diminishing stature of the Congress within the Opposition camp (the Trinamool Congress has previously poached leaders from the party), and indicates that the party may command significantly less bargaining power in such a grouping than what some of its leaders claimed at the Chintan Shivir. Worse still, it bolsters the public perception that the Congress is in terminal decline, one that the party needs to desperately reverse if it has to stand a chance in the upcoming elections. Its response will determine whether future departures can be stopped.