"Cowards and Greedy": Rahul Gandhi Targets Former Congress Leaders During Interaction with Young Party Members

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has launched a pointed attack on former party colleagues who left the Congress, describing them as cowards and greedy while speaking to young members of the organisation. The remarks, made on Friday, October 16, 2026, were part of an informal interaction in which Gandhi spoke about courage, commitment and the future of the party.

The Message to Young Workers

Gandhi's audience consisted of young party members, a group the Congress has been trying to energise and bring into more active roles. In the course of the conversation, he spoke about leaders who had walked away from the party and named Jyotiraditya Scindia and Ghulam Nabi Azad as examples. According to Gandhi, they left because of fear and personal interest, while those who remained in the Congress are the real "lions" who are ready to stand firm. The comment was meant to inspire the youth to see loyalty and fearlessness as defining qualities of a Congress worker.

Kharge's Light-Hearted Interjection

The conversation took a humorous turn when party president Mallikarjun Kharge, who was present, remarked that the leaders being discussed had all been Gandhi's friends. The comment drew attention to the fact that many of those who later left had once been regarded as part of the party's younger leadership and close to Gandhi himself. Gandhi responded by saying that Scindia had not been his friend and spoke about how political friendships and rivalries can look different from the way they appear to the public.

Who Are the Leaders He Mentioned

Scindia, once a prominent face of the Congress's younger generation, left the party in March 2020 with a group of legislators from Madhya Pradesh. His exit led to the collapse of the Congress government in the state, and he subsequently joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. Azad, a senior leader who held several important posts in the Congress and served as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, resigned from the party in 2022 and went on to form his own political outfit. Both have since criticised the Congress leadership, and both have been targets of Gandhi's remarks in the past.

A Familiar Line of Argument

The latest comments are consistent with the way Gandhi has spoken about defections before. In 2021, he told party workers that the Congress needed fearless people and that those who were afraid of facing the political reality were free to leave. He has also said on other occasions that Scindia would have had a better political future had he stayed in the party. By repeating the theme before a youth audience, he appears to be reinforcing the idea that the Congress is a party of conviction and that departures are a sign of weakness rather than a loss of direction.

Reactions and Political Implications

Such language is likely to draw criticism from those who believe the party should reflect on why so many leaders have left rather than label them. Opponents often argue that frequent departures point to deeper organisational problems, and former leaders have in the past responded sharply to similar remarks. For the Congress, the challenge is to keep young members motivated and to show that there is space for new leadership within the organisation.

For now, the remark has added another chapter to the long-running exchange between Gandhi and the leaders who left the party, and it shows how defections continue to shape the Congress's public messaging.

This report is based on published news coverage and remarks attributed to the leaders involved during an informal interaction.