Lobby within Congress seeks Jairam Ramesh's removal

After spending a year as Congress' general secretary in-charge, communications, a lobby has emerged led by a leader in an election-bound state that seeks the removal of Jairam Ramesh from his prize portfolio.

- BADAR BASHIR

Sources suggest that the lobby is alleging that he was "heckling" Rahul Gandhi in press conferences during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, and that this has sent a wrong message to the cadre. Such a view does not square with the immense publicity that the Yatra got.

The lobby gunning for Ramesh charges that he broke "political decorum", which they claim to be a "deliberate attempt at dictating terms (to Rahul Gandhi) in public". Those unhappy with the prominence given to Ramesh call him responsible for "amateur acts" and "unnecessary stunts". Referring to Rahul Gandhi's press conference which he had held after he was disqualified from Parliament, a senior party leader flagged Ramesh's "deliberate attempt of tutoring and loudly correcting Rahul Gandhi with mics on", in what he claimed was a bid to look like an "indispensable advisor, on-screen and-offscreen", to Rahul Gandhi.