Congress today dismissed suggestions that several of its leaders, including Union Ministers, were scared to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls fearing defeat while many others were deserting the party because they saw no prospect for it under Rahul Gandhi's leadership.
Terming such conjecture "full of cynicism and insinuations", party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said that this is election season and people come and go.
"I am not going to answer any speculation in advance... I am not privy to any such matter," he said when asked about reports that Finance Minister P Chidambaram does not want to contest from his parliamentary seat of Sivganga.
"This question can be asked only when the list of candidates for the particular area is published... When people are repeated, you say there is anti-incumbency.
"When they are not, you ask why incumbents are changing constituencies. Such things have to be done in a holistic manner," Singhvi said.
He also rejected contentions that mass-scale desertions were happening in the party.
Singhvi further dismissed as an act of "opportunism" the move by party leader Bhagirath Prasad to join BJP even after his name had been declared in Congress's first list of candidates.
He also repudiated the criticism by MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma from Rajasthan, who has since resigned from Congress, that Rahul Gandhi had been "forced" upon the party.
Singhvi said that such remarks were made by people who have to justify their opportunism while leaving the party.
He said that individual leaders who leave a party due to personal interests and opportunism would later have to answer to the masses for the same.
