The Congress party has been rocked by a fresh slew of resignations from key leaders in various states across the country. Now speculations are rife about Congress veteran Kamal Nath’s potential switch to the BJP. The exodus of leaders from the Congress fold comes amid reports of discontent within the party over its leadership and strategy. The timing of these resignations couldn’t be worse for the Congress party, as it gears up to challenge the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. With each departure, the party is not only losing experienced leaders but also risks denting its electoral prospects and weakening its organisational structure in key constituencies.

Here are some of the key Congress leaders who quit the party in recent years:

Jyotiraditya Scindia: Scindia left the Congress party in March 2020 along with at least 22 MLAs in Madhya Pradesh which resulted in the fall of the Kamal Nath government. In his resignation letter to then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Scindia said the has been “drawing itself out over the last year.” Scindia reportedly felt marginalised within the party and believed that his concerns were not being addressed adequately. He eventually joined the rival BJP and became a Union minister in the Narendra Modi government.

Jitin Prasada: Touted as one of the ‘Young Turks’ of Congress destined to play a key role in Rahul Gandhi’s team, Jitin Prasada left the grand old party in June 2021, months before the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. Congress insiders and people close to Jitin Prasada said he was increasingly unhappy with the state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh in general, and his home turf Shahjahanpur in particular. Prasada won Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and 2009 and was a Union minister in the previous Congress-led government.

Amarinder Singh: Former Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh resigned from the Indian National Congress in November 2021 following a long-drawn tussle with Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu and several party legislators. In a seven-page resignation letter to Sonia Gandhi, Singh said the “midnight conspiracy” carried out against him at her and her children’s behest by calling a Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting over his head in the dead of the night and that too through Twitter was the most “egregious” act. He floated a new outfit, Punjab Lok Congress, only to later merge it with the BJP.

RPN Singh: Another ‘Young Turk’ Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh, commonly known as RPN Singh, switched to the BJP in January 2022 days ahead of the UP assembly elections. Singh lamented that the party he was associated with for 32 years is not what it used to be. Singh was recently named by the BJP as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

Ashwani Kumar: In February 2022, former Union minister Ashwani Kumar ended his 46-year-long association with the party which he said “had lost touch with the ground reality and no longer reflected the national mood”. He also slammed the manner in which Amarinder Singh was humiliated into resignation and rightly predicted a comfortable win for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab.

Kapil Sibal: Senior advocate and former Union minister Kapil Sibal resigned from the Congress party in May 2022 and was elected to Rajya Sabha as an independent candidate with support from the Samajwadi Party. While Sibal was a member of the so-called G23 that had raised concerns about the functioning of the party, he has avoided attacking Congress since his exit, unlike his fellow travellers. Sibal served as a minister during the entire 10-year tenure of the UPA government, shifting between science and technology, law, human resource development, and earth sciences portfolios.

Sunil Jakhar: Ex-Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar announced his resignation during a Facebook Live in May 2022 and joined the BJP within a week. Removed from posts over ‘anti-party activities’, Jakhar called on Rahul Gandhi to retake control and warned him to ‘distance yourself from sycophants’. Jakhar said it was not easy for him to leave Congress, which, he said, three generations of his family served.

Ghulam Nabi Azad: Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and Congress veteran Ghulab Nabi Azad resigned from the party’s primary membership in August 2022 in a scathing letter attacking Rahul Gandhi. In a five-page note to party interim president Sonia Gandhi, Azad said the Congress party has reached a point of ‘no return’. Azad said the situation has only worsened since the 2019 elections after Rahul Gandhi stepped down in a huff and not before insulting all the senior party functionaries who have given their lives to the party.

Milind Deora: Former Union minister Milind Deora joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena the same day Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra kicked off his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur in January 2024. Deora declared he switched sides since the Congress “was no longer the party it used to be”. He has been nominated by Shiv Sena for Rajya Sabha polls.

Ashok Chavan: Former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan who once led the revival of the party’s state unit resigned from Congress and joined the rival BJP earlier this month. Ashok Chavan is the third prominent Congress leader in the state to quit the party after Milind Deora and Baba Siddique over the last month. Chavan said his decision to join the BJP was fueled by a desire for better opportunities and a belief in the BJP’s burgeoning influence on both the national and state levels.