Rahul Gandhi's office insulted me, claims Shehzad Poonawalla

Congress leader and Maharashtra Congress secretary Shehzad Poonawalla on Wednesday questioned the process to elect party President, calling it "rigged" and said vice president Rahul Gandhi must first resign from his post.

NEW DELHI: Congress leader and Maharashtra Congress secretary Shehzad Poonawalla, who has called the process to elect party president as 'rigged', on Sunday accused Rahul Gandhi's office of insulting him.

“Today morning, I called Rahul Gandhi's office for an appointment to provide him proof that it was a rigged (Congress president) election before he files his nomination on Monday,” Poonawalla said, adding that “I thought Rahul Gandhi has some morality and will stop the election process, but his office insulted me.”

"Sardar Patel was denied his due years ago; I contacted @OfficeOfRG even today asking his office to meet me so I could give them proofs about the rigged election of RG- they insulted me just like Patel must have been insulted," Poonawalla tweeted.

A week before Rahul Gandhi's expected elevation as Congress president, party leader Shehzad Poonawalla on November 29 had said former's elevation is a 'selection not an election'.

Claiming that the poll process to elect party president has been stacked in Rahul Gandhi's favour just because he belongs to the Gandhi family Poonawalla took to Twitter and expressed his views by saying, "Raising an issue nobody in my party - the Congress will have guts to raise- my conscience will not allow me to stay quiet anymore on Dynasty/ sycophancy."

He had tagged his brother Tehseen Poonawalla to his tweet and said, "@tehseenp has no idea about this issue else he would have stopped me too."

Tehseen is the brother-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra.

On December 1, when notification was issued for the election to choose the next Congress president, Shehzad alleged that party's spokesperson Manish Tewari had told him during a conversation that the Congress was a "proprietorship" like every other political party in India.

The Congress had raised questions over Poonawalla's stature in the party and slammed him for showing disgruntlement on the eve of election.

Maharashtra Congress unit and his family members have virtually "disowned" Shehzad.

State Congress president Ashok Chavan has said Poonawalla's remarks were aimed at getting "cheap publicity", to which the party gives no importance.