'Rahul Gandhi Is Deliberately Destroying The Congress'

'Both Rahul and Modi are the same in the way they run their parties. Modi too wants faceless people and so does Rahul Gandhi.'

Congress workers are burning effigies in Patna of former Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad after he targeted Rahul Gandhi's leadership skills in a podcast.

In the podcast he took potshots at Rahul and blamed him for the electoral decline and decimation of the Congress party across the country.

This infuriated Congress party workers who in protest burnt his effigy in Patna.

The senior Congress leader from Bihar had quit the Congress in November 2025 just before the Bihar election results were to be announced.

The Congress won six out of the 61 assembly seats it contested in the 2025 assembly elections. It had won 19 seats in the 2020 Bihar assembly elections and 27 in 2015.

"No Congress candidate wants Rahul Gandhi to campaign in his or her constituency when they are contesting elections. They are always worried what Rahul Gandhi will come and say in his speech which eventually will lead to damaging their prospects," Shakeel Ahmad tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.

Why are Congress workers burning your effigy?

These things don't happen overnight. I have worked with two people very closely. One is Sonia Gandhi as Congress president, and secondly Rahul Gandhi as general secretary and vice president of the party. I have watched them closely and in my opinion Sonia Gandhi is outstanding whereas Rahul Gandhi has certain complexes.

It has been fitted into his mind by people close to him. He does not trust the Congress leaders who became leaders on their own merit before he entered politics.

Rahul will never accept those leaders from his heart. He wants all these leaders who are elders in the party to sit at home. He has insecurity from all these senior Congress leaders.

Just take my example. When Rahul Gandhi won his first election I had already won five elections on my own merit. So, if Rahul Gandhi thinks that I became a leader on his hard work, then it is nothing but a foolish thought. He does not believe in party loyalty.

You mean Rahul Gandhi believes in people who are more loyal to him rather than the Congress party?

Yes, exactly. Rahul Gandhi mazboot Congress pasand karte hain, mazboot Congressi nahi pasand karte hain (Rahul Gandhi loves a strong Congress party but prefers weak Congress leaders). This I said in one of my podcasts, which created all the problems.

So what led to the protest against you?

I deciphered Rahul Gandhi by this statement. My statement hit the fish eye like Arjun did in the Mahabharat. It exposed Rahul Gandhi.

But if you are a Congress person by heart...

(Interrupts) I am not a Congress person. I have resigned from the Congress party. I am a Congress well-wisher.

Now even if you are a well-wisher of the Congress party, why are you making statements that are showing the Congress in bad light?

I am a Congress party well-wisher and not a well-wisher of Rahul Gandhi. My loyalty is to the party and ideology to the Congress party.

My father and my grandfather too believed in the Congress ideology. I am loyal to that Congress ideology. Rahul Gandhi is deliberately destroying the Congress party.

I have praised Sonia Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi in the same podcast, but people are picking selective parts of the interview where I have criticised deficiencies in Rahul Gandhi.

But why are you criticising Rahul Gandhi when the president of the Congress party is Mallikarjun Kharge?

Kharge is a rubber stamp president of the Congress party. If Kharge starts doing things on his own he will end up like Sitaram Kesri (the then Congress president who was thrown out of office by Sonia Gandhi's supporters in 1998). He will face the same fate as that of Kesri.

I personally wanted to vote for Shashi Tharoor, but when Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi supported Kharge I decided not to waste my vote and cast my vote for Kharge.

If you are implying that Rahul Gandhi is destroying the Congress party, don't you feel he wants the Congress to come to power?

Rahul Gandhi is only waiting for people to get disenchanted and disappointed with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The day that happens he will automatically come to power.

Today, even if Rahul Gandhi wishes, the Congress party cannot come third in general elections because it is the only national party besides the BJP. It will always be in second position.

If you see all the Opposition parties they all are restricted to one state, right from Mamata Banerjee to Lalu Yadav. I joked in that podcast when a child comes and tells his father that he stood second in class the father pats him for good results. He then asks the child, 'How many children appeared for the exams?' The child answers only two.

This is what exactly happening to the Congress party in India's politics.

Is there an option in the Congress if Rahul Gandhi does not helm power?

Only one person can replace Rahul Gandhi and it is Priyanka Gandhi. People trust her. The rank and file of the Congress party trusts the Nehru-Gandhi family and that is why Rahul Gandhi is taking advantage of that surname.

Did you speak to Priyanka ever?

Only once in my life. She called me because she wanted me to attend one public meeting.

You will be surprised to know that no Congress candidate wants Rahul Gandhi to campaign in his or her constituency when they are contesting elections. They are always worried what Rahul Gandhi will come and say in his speech which eventually will lead to damaging their prospects.

But Rahul Gandhi is the star campaigner of the Congress party.

So what? Even I was a star campaigner of the Congress party.

But since you are praising Priyanka Gandhi so much let me remind you that she was in charge of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2022 and the Congress won only two seats out of 403. She was a flop.

Assembly elections are fought on local issues.

But when you make such statements against Rahul Gandhi, the BJP benefits, isn't it?

Every Congressperson is happy with my statements. They tell this to me privately.

Why are your effigies are being burnt in Patna by Congress workers then?

They are all my nephews who are doing it. From Delhi (the Congress headquarters) it was ordered to burn my effigies and therefore they are doing it.

Moreover, there were only eight people who did it. They told me the previous night that they are going to burn my effigy and apologised to me in advance because they had orders from Delhi.

Who are the coterie members who are directing Rahul Gandhi to do what he is doing?

I don't want to name anyone because these are people of small stature.

Do you feel Rahul Gandhi is vindictive by nature?

Yes, he is. Rahul Gandhi has the same mentality as PM Modi when it comes to party issues.

For example, when we 7-8 Congress ex-ministers and MLAs were sitting for a party discussion and I suddenly put a question to them. Please tell me the name of the Odisha chief minister, no one knew the answer.

I then asked a second question, please name the Chhattisgarh chief minister. Again no one had an answer. I asked a third question, who is the Madhya Pradesh chief minister? Only one person could answer from the eight people assembled and he said Mohan Yadav and the Congress leader who answered it was from the Yadav community.

Now, no one in the Congress party knows the names of the chief ministers of these states and the same is the condition of the general public if you put these questions to them. The reason being Prime Minister Narendra Modi loves faceless leaders.

Rahul Gandhi too believes in faceless leaders of the Congress. He just wants to hog the limelight. The only difference is that people vote in the name of Modi, but not Rahul Gandhi. Therefore, the problem is arising in the Congress party.

In other words, both Rahul and Modi are the same in the way they run their parties. Modi too wants faceless people and so does Rahul Gandhi.