The Newz Radar
DHARAMSHALA: The top three leaders of the Congress, national president Mallikarjun Kharge, his predecessor Rahul Gandhi and all-powerful general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, skipped the Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu government’s one-year celebration rally in Dharamshala on Monday (December 11, 2023).
While Rahul is abroad and had already conveyed his inability to attend the event, Kharge is said to have been busy with meetings related to the opposition INDIA bloc.
Priyanka, who reached Shimla on Sunday night and was speculated to fly along with CM Sukhu in his helicopter to Dharamshala, too gave the rally a miss. From the Congress top brass, only state in-charge Rajeev Shukla and co-in-charge Tajinder Bittu were among prominent faces who arrived as guests for the rally.
Party leaders had earlier said that Kharge and Priyanka would attend the rally. But none of them arrived, which left the party’s workers disappointed.
Priyanka’s absence has given rise to several questions. It owes significance as there were already fissures in the government and party. There were statements made by Congress state president Pratibha Singh, raising fingers at the government for not accommodating loyal party workers.
Several female workers moved back to their buses even before the programme took off formally, complaining that they were not happy that Priyanka Gandhi had not arrived.
Bimla Devi, while exiting from rally venue, said: “We left everything behind to listen to Priyanka, but she didn’t arrive. It has disheartened us.” Till the filing of this report, none of the Congress leaders had spoken about the absence of Priyanka or Kharge.
