Congress leader Vinay Pradhan, who was sacked as the party's Meerut District President for describing Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi as "Pappu" in a WhatsApp message, on Wednesday said he, along with other aggrieved Congress members, will soon launch a campaign to make India "Pappu-mukt" (free of Pappu).

Pradhan, who claimed to have given 22 years of his life to the Congress party, resigned from the Congress on Wednesday while holding Rahul Gandhi and his "coterie of sycophants" responsible for the Congress party's decline.

"Rahul Gandhi and the sycophants around him are already making some parties' dream to make a 'Congress-free' India a reality. The person who cannot understand his praise is really a 'Pappu' (idiot) and I have no qualms in calling him that," Pradhan said here at a press conference.

He said that there were others like him who were sad at the decline of the Congress due to the total disconnect of the top leadership from the ground realities and they were also coming with him for the Pappu-free India campaign.

Pradhan did not elaborate how he plans to achieve his objective, or whether he will join some other political party.

"I was removed from all party posts without even hearing my side of the story. This is like following Pakistan's anti-blasphemy law. The party is being run by a small group of sycophants who surround Rahul Gandhi," he said.

Pradhan landed himself in trouble on June 14 when he sent a message in defence of Rahul Gandhi -- who is often called "Pappu" by his detractors -- wherein he listed how Gandhi has been fighting for the cause of the poor and farmers, and why the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) projected him as "Pappu".

But the message ruffled the wrong feathers in the party and Pradhan was immediately sacked.

--IANS

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