Close aide of Vilasrao Deshmukh quits party; on way to BJP

In a sign of further trouble in the Congress party, Jai Prakash Singh, Congress functionary and one of the close aides of late Congress leader and former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh has quit the party. Singh handed over his resignation from the party to Mumbai Congress Chief Sanjay Nirupam last week.

While Singh admitted to ET that he had quit the party he refused to divulge his next course of action, sources in the BJP said that the Congress functionary was on his way to their party.

Singh was however unequivocal of why he was quitting the party. “I have quit the party because the party has forgotten its core ideologies. Rajivji ( Rajiv Gandhi) had clearly stated that there would be no compromise on corruption in public life and unity of the country however in both cases currently the Congress party is seen making compromises.”said Singh.

Elaborating further he said that the Congress Vice-President should not have gone to express solidarity with the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) protests last year. “Many in the Congress were shocked when Rahul went there because he is not following what his own father preached.”claimed Singh.

Singh was an AICC member and was also the General Secretary of the Maharashtra unit of the Congress and besides being a close aide of Vilasrao Deshmukh he was also close to former Congress MP Gurudas Kamat. Incidentally Kamat himself had quit all party posts, however Singh clarified that his resignation had nothing to do with the former Congress MP’s resignation.

When contacted, Mumbai Congress Chief Sanjay Nirupam said, "The Congress was not in power for the last three years and it is the BJP which has been involved in corruption in the center as well as the state. The loyal Congress leaders should be raising this issue."