Sonia Gandhi calls up Gurudas Kamat, urges discussion on what led to resignation from party

NEW DELHI: Playing apex arbitrator, Congress president Sonia Gandhi called up AICC general secretary Gurudas Kamat on Wednesday and urged him to meet her to discuss the issues that led to his abdication of politics, sources said.

Accordingly, Kamat is scheduled to arrive in Delhi and meet the party president soon. Sources in AICC have expressed optimism of sorting out the issue amicably, while pointing out that Kamat “is a committed Congressman and a loyalist of the Gandhi family.”

Sonia Gandhi reaching out to Kamat, after her political secretary Ahmed Patel talked to him on Tuesday, coincided with around 25 Congress corporators in Mumbai expressing support to him and offering to resign in solidarity, something that Kamat reportedly urged them not to do.

Many other Mumbai Congress leaders, including presidents of the city youth Congress and Mahila Congress also appealed to him to reconsider his decision. At the AICC, the party spokesperson too sent out conciliatory messages to Kamat by describing him as a “valuable leader, who was part and parcel of the Congress.”

Kamat’s resignation is being described in Congress circles as the flashpoint of his and his supporters growing differences with Sanjay Nirupam, the Rahul Gandhi-appointed president of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee.

Party circles are worried about the cascading impact Kamat’s resignation could have on Mumbai Congress besides its potential to impact the Congress prospects in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections, as he is considered to be the most entrenched Congress leader in the city Mumbai.