The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Cong’s TV voice Vallabh discovers BJP language — of Ram Temple, Sanatan Dharma, ex-party’s ‘sins’
A FAMILIAR face for the Congress on television, Gourav Vallabh on Thursday joined the list of leaders leaving the party for the BJP. While the fact that he is not a grass-root leader or an organisational heavyweight means his exit will hurt the Congress more in terms of optics, it's the issues that he flagged which will cause the party discomfort.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Vallabh, 47, called the Congress leadership's decision not to attend the Ayodhya Ram Temple consecration a “sin” – “forget about any political gains or losses”. “Since that day, have you seen me doing any press conferences or appearing on any television shows? I have not entered the AICC since,” he said.
Vallabh claimed he was also disturbed by the remarks of some Congress leaders regarding Sanatan Dharma. “I went to every single Congress leader and told them we will be wiped out once again in North India because of the statements by our allies (the DMK) and some of our leaders abusing Sanatan ... but nobody listened.”
In the Rajasthan Assembly polls in November, Vallabh, who joined the Congress in 2017, was fielded from Udaipur. On Thursday, he attributed his loss to “the abuses against Sanatan by our alliance partners”.
The Udaipur loss was Vallabh's second electoral defeat, with the Congress fielding him in 2019 from the Jamshedpur East Assembly seat against the sitting BJP CM Raghubar Das. That was just two years after Vallabh had joined the Congress. He finished third in the contest.
Vallabh was also part of the team that managed Mallikarjun
Kharge’s election for the post of Congress president in 2022. He had triggered a controversy then by slamming Shashi Tharoor, a contenderforthepresident’spost.
Vallabh said he had a long list of grievances. “I reminded the leadership several times that we should not blindly oppose everything. But the party opposed every disinvestment. Every wealth creator is abused. In the past, we would welcome wealth creators,” he said.
Asked how he could justify joining a party that he had criticised vocifersouly all these years, Vallabh said: “There is something called an essential condition in a job interview and something called a desirable condition. My essential conditions are the nation’sdevelopment,economicdevelopment, economic prosperity, and last but not the least dharmic (religious) ... dharma's raksha (securing religion). When the Congress is striking at my essentialconditions,thenwhatdoido? Staying there would mean my essential conditions are not my essential conditions... I had no other choice.”