Sacked leader Sanjay Jha, who has been critical of the internal functioning of the Congress party, on Monday revealed that around 100 Congress leaders have written to Sonia Gandhi asking for a change in political leadership and transparent elections in the CWC.

“It is estimated that around 100 Congress leaders (including MP’s), distressed at the state of affairs within the party, have written a letter to Mrs Sonia Gandhi, Congress President, asking for change in political leadership and transparent elections in CWC,” Jha said in a tweet.

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This is not the first time that Sanjay Jha has opened up about the internal crisis in the grand old party.

On June 17, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had dropped him as the party’s national spokesperson.

In a major reshuffle of the party spokespersons, Sonia Gandhi appointed Abhishek Dutt and Sadhna Bharti as the new party spokespersons while dropping Jha.

The action came almost 10 days after Jha said the claim that the Congress has an internal robust mechanism was “not correct” and “it doesn’t listen to its members”. Jha pushed his view through a newspaper article, but was promptly contradicted by the party.

In the article, the Congress leader also said the party could not present an alternative narrative of governance to the people when the government has failed.

Jha said that the party was reacting to the issues, but not in a comprehensive manner. The views of Jha were contradicted by several senior Congress leaders like Ajay Maken.

His view was endorsed by Pankaj Shankar, a former aide of Rahul Gandhi. Earlier as well, many party leaders, including Sandeep Dikshit and Shashi Tharoor raised questions on the change of leadership and advocated for a full-time president. Sandeep Dikshit had said that the party needs a full time president and a mechanism to exchange views inside the party.

Following his sacking as the Congress spokesperson, Sanjay Jha had said that the party lacks internal democracy and it is not what it used to be, for sure.

He, however, asserted that he will remain a committed Congressman and shall continue to raise issues internally and publicly to strengthen the party from within.

Meanwhile, on July 14, in an abrupt development, Maharashtra Congress President Balasaheb Thorat suspended former party spokesperson Jha for “anti-party activities”.

A terse statement announced that he was being suspended with immediate effect for “anti-party activities and breach of discipline”, which were not specified.