New Delhi: A day after Jitin Prasada joined BJP, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Thursday ruled out joining the saffron party. Notably, Prasada and Sibal were among the 23 signatories of the letter sent to interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi last year seeking radical changes in the party.
However, Sibal slammed fellow letter writer Jitin Prasada for crossing over to the BJP by saying that it represented politics of "prasada" (personal gains).
The senior Congress leader also said that hypothetically if his party thinks of him as "dead wood" or of no utility, he may think of leaving, but would never join the BJP, asserting that such a switch could only happen "over my dead body".
In an interview with a news agency, Sibal said that if Jitin Prasada would have left the party unhappy over the response of the leadership on the concerns raised by the letter writers that would have been his personal choice and he was entitled to leave, but wondered why he decided to join the BJP.
"What is the rational basis for that except for 'prasada (personal gain) politics...We see this happening around the country," Sibal asserted.
Asked about the reforms not being implemented which he along with 22 other leaders had sought from the party, Sibal said that it is for the top political leaders to decide and that at this stage, he has no comments to offer.
"As long as we are in the Congress and we continue to embrace its ideology, I think all 22 of us, now that we are 22, and many more who were not part of the signed document will continue to raise our issues to strengthen the Congress and where we want the party to go and be the grand old party it was," he said.
"And if they tell me at any point in time that they don't need me, I will decide what to do, but as I said I will not join the BJP...over my dead body," he said.