Former Congress MLA Mohammed Moquim on Monday broke his silence after being expelled from the party, defending his decision to write a letter to former Congress president Sonia Gandhi flagging leadership concerns and repeated electoral losses, and asserting that he merely followed Rahul Gandhi’s call to party workers to “daro matt (don’t be scared).” 

“I came to know that I have been expelled from the party. I had taken the right step after due deliberation,” Moquim said, reacting to the decision cleared by the All India Congress Committee (AICC). “We are such a big party, but we are unable to connect to people in every state. We are unable to win. Congress is minimising.”

Moquim said his letter to Sonia Gandhi was written in the spirit of reform, after repeated failures to communicate concerns to the leadership.

“As a true Congress worker, I thought if the high command is not meeting us and we are unable to communicate with them, then we should express our thoughts. Rahul ji himself says ‘daro matt’. I told the truth to the party’s high command—but had to be expelled,” he said.

The Congress, however, cited “anti-party activities” as the reason for his expulsion.

“This is for the information of all concerned that AICC has approved the proposal for the expulsion of Sri Md. Moquim from the primary membership of the party, due to anti-party activities,” the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) said in its notice, without detailing the specific acts.

In his letter to Sonia Gandhi, Moquim had urged the party to bring forward “young leaders,” warning that the Congress was going through a “difficult phase.” Referring to defeats in Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Kashmir, he wrote that these losses reflected a “deeper organisational disconnect.”

“A series of wrong decisions, misguided leadership choices, and the continued concentration of responsibility in the wrong hands have weakened the Party from within,” the letter stated, questioning whether responsibilities were being entrusted to the right people and whether the leadership fully grasped the gravity of the crisis.

Moquim had also openly questioned whether age was a factor, saying that “age is not on AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge’s side” and that the party needed new leadership energy to reconnect with the youth.

His remarks drew sharp criticism from OPCC president Bhakta Charan Das, who likened Moquim’s comments to BJP talking points. “Those who challenge the party leadership should immediately join the BJP,” Das said.

The BJP was quick to seize on the controversy, with party spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla describing the episode as an “internal rift” and claiming a battle between “Team Priyanka” and “Team Rahul,” while accusing the Congress of being out of touch with India’s youth under the current leadership.

Moquim’s expulsion comes against the backdrop of earlier controversies. He was suspended in July 2023 for questioning Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s leadership—a decision later revoked in January 2024 ahead of elections.

He had also faced a show-cause notice for cross-voting in favour of NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu in 2022. The former Barabati–Cuttack MLA was disqualified from contesting the 2024 elections following his conviction in a state vigilance case in September 2022.