On Wednesday, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who has been the most vocal of the G23 leaders against the Gandhi family, filed a nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat from Lucknow in presence of the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav after quitting the Congress party.

Amid the speculations of Sibal joining the Samajwadi party, he said that has filed a nomination as an independent candidate supported by SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav. “I have always wanted to be an independent voice in the country”, he added.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Kapil Sibal also informed today that he has already left the Congress party 10 days ago. He said that he had tendered his resignation from Congress on May 16, adding that he will remain an opposition leader.

According to the reports, filing nominations for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections began on Tuesday. While political parties were in the process of finalizing their list of candidates, reports mention that the Samajwadi Party had decided on the names of Kapil Sibal, Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav, and Javed Ali for the Rajya Sabha.

Meanwhile, SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav confirmed the party’s support for former Congress leader and said, “Today Kapil Sibal filed nomination. He is going to Rajya Sabha with SP’s support. Two more people can go to the House. Kapil Sibal is a senior lawyer. He has presented his opinions well in the Parliament. We hope he’ll present opinions of both SP as well as himself”.

While filing the nomination in presence of SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav, Sibal said that he had resigned from the Congress party on May 16. “I tendered my resignation from Congress on May 16. I am still in opposition and we will form a coalition to oust Narendra Modi in 2024”, he said on May 25.

The speedy development comes as the term of former Congress leader Kapil Sibal in the Rajya Sabha is about to end in July 2022. Earlier, there were speculations that Sibal had plans to file a nomination for the Rajya Sabha seat with the support of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) but now it’s clear that Akhilesh Yadav led party will be supporting Sibal in the Rajya Sabha.

Sibal is believed to have developed close relationships with many SP leaders, including Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan. He recently represented jailed Khan in Supreme Court and helped him secure interim bail. He also helped Akhilesh Yadav retain the party’s bicycle symbol in the year 2017. On May 20, as Khan was released on interim bail from Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur jail, he had said that Sibal had done a huge thing by securing bail and that he had no capacity to pay him the fees. Yet amid the wide speculations of Sibal joining the SP, Khan on May 24 said, “Sibal is such a senior personality, he is a very big person and very nice. I’ll be the happiest if he is nominated”.

Here are a few more reactions of netizens who believe that the Samajwadi Party has extended the support to Kapil Sibal to reciprocate his help to Azam Khan.

Tensions between Kapil Sibal and the Congress Party

It is important to note that there were escalating tensions between the former Congress leader and the party. He had been vocal against the policies and principles adopted by the Gandhi family for the Congress party. On September 29, Congress party members staged a protest against him for criticizing the party leadership over various issues including the handling of the internal conflict in the party in Punjab. The party workers had accused him of allying with BJP for his statements against the Gandhi family.

Sibal had also stated that the G-23 group within the Congress party was not Ji Huzoor 23. Criticizing the delay in appointing a full-time party president, Sibal had said, “In our party, there is no president. So we don’t know who is making these decisions. We know and yet we don’t know.”

Also, recently on March 15, with the losing hope of revival, the senior leader had demanded to give control of the Congress party to someone other than Gandhis. He had said that the party was ‘sab ki Congress’ and not only ‘Ghar ki Congress’. Sibal had further said that there was no decentralization of the power in Congress. “They don’t have direct contact with them. In this power structure, therefore, the organization is bereft of any vision,” he had said. The senior leader, therefore, quit the party on May 16, 2022.

References:

opindia.com