Congress denies Sanjay Jha's claim of 100 letters

Suspended Congress Party leader Sanjay Jha has said that about a hundred party leaders have written to interim president Sonia Gandhi for elections to the Congress Working Committee and the party president's post. The Congress Party has denied the claim.

New Delhi: Soon after suspended Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha claimed that 100 Congressmen have written letters to party Chief, Sonia Gandhi, demanding a change in political leadership, the party said he was spreading rumours on behalf of Bhartiya Janta Party and called him a "stooge" of the BJP.

On Monday, Jha tweeted, "It is estimated that around 100 Congress leaders (including MPs), distressed at the state of affairs within the party, have written a letter to Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Congress President, asking for change in political leadership and transparent elections in CWC."

Hours after that, Congress Chief Spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala replied to his claims quoting "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN" in the tweet and said, "Special Misinformation Group on Media-TV Debate Guidance" in its WhatsApp of today directed to run the story on a non-existent letter of Congress leaders to divert attention from Facebook-BJP links. Of course, BJP stooges have started acting upon it."

After Surjewala claimed that Jha is trying to divert attention from Facebook-BJP links, the latter again took to Twitter saying," The BJP-Facebook link is deeply disturbing as social media is a powerful vehicle to shape public opinion. We all know what happened in the 2016 US elections. Those in the Congress saying that I mischievously tried to divert attention from this grave matter are hereby answered.

This is not the first time when Sanjay Jha had claimed that a number of leaders within the party are "distressed" about the leadership and want an election within the organization.

Congress in its official statement has also denied about letters to the party president, saying that Jha is not a member of the party anymore and he is merely spreading rumours on the directions of BJP to divert the attention from the link between Facebook and the ruling party.

"There is no such letter by Congress members or MPs and the individual in question is doing this at the behest of BJP to deflect the issue from BJP and it's linkage with Facebook," said the party.

Congress has accused BJP of manipulating social media, quoting a report titled "Facebook Hate-Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics- Company Executive opposed the move to ban the controversial politician".

When asked about the matter, during the press conference, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, "Freedom of speech and expression is greatly respected in the Congress party. We haven't existed for over a century by curbing voices, we've existed because people have a right to say what they want to say."

"In politics, you need not be someone in a hurry but someone with patience, in company with discipline. If anyone has raised this issue in front of the leadership, then I'm sure somebody with a capable mind will look into it. We know how to overcome obstacles. So if some leader is raising this issue then the one will realize that one such big obstacle has been overcome recently in Rajasthan, where democracy eventually won."

Recently, Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Sandeep Dikshit also raised similar concerns over the party leadership's failure while asserting over the need to elect a new president.