In a striking contrast, Shehzad Poonawalla’s resignation letters to the Congress and BJP highlight his evolving political stance. His lengthy letter to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 2017 criticized the party’s dynastic politics. This criticism stands in stark opposition to his recent resignation from the BJP, which he submitted last month. The shift in tone and content between the two letters underscores the complexities of political accountability and personal ideology in Indian politics.
After quitting BJP, Poonawalla clarified that there is no way he was returning to Congress. Poonawalla joined the Congress in 2008 and, after what he described in his letter as eight years of putting his ‘energy and money’ for progress of the party, was made secretary of the Maharashtra Congress unit in 2016. However, by 2017, he had begun moving away from the party, citing what he described as an unfair election to choose the Congress president. He eventually resigned in December 2017. The 38-year-old BJP national spokesperson submitted his resignation from all party posts and primary membership to party president Nitin Nabin on Monday. He had first offered to resign on July 30, but the party asked him to reconsider.
Replying to the same question, he sarcastically told NDTV, “I will join the Congress on one condition: Remove Rahul Gandhi, remove Sonia Gandhi, remove Priyanka Vadra, apologise for Nehru’s actions. In his letter to Rahul Gandhi, Poonawalla mentioned about the same election and wrote that the choice of the party president would be obvious because the system was “rigged”. He went on to question whether the Congress was a “private limited company” or a Bollywood “khan-dan”, referring to Rahul becoming Congress general secretary the same year. “Due to pressing emergency financial and personal circumstances, I will move into the private sector, but wherever possible and in whatever format possible, I will continue to support the vision and work of Prime Minister Modi and the BJP,” he said.
