After Jairam Ramesh, Mani Shankar Aiyar worried about Congress future, says party needs new ideas
After Jairam Ramesh, another senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has raised concerns over lack of strategy in the party to tackle Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.
In Short
- Congress needs new ideas, says Mani Shankar Aiyar.
- Congressmen should look at reality. We have only 44 MPs, Aiyar says.
- Jairam Ramesh had said Congress facing existential crisis.
Despite Ahmed Patel snatching his Rajya Sabha seat from BJP's jaws in what he described as one of the toughest elections of his life, Congress veterans are worried over the party's future.
Days after senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh for 'a collective effort' by party leaders to 'overcome' the challenges it faced from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah, another veteran leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has called for a revamp of party strategy.
Aiyar, while pointing out that his party had just 44 members in Lok Sabha, said the Congress needs to develop new ideas to remain relevant in country's politics.
"Congressmen should look at reality. We have only 44 MPs and faced serious setbacks," Mani Shankar Aiyar said.
"Congress needs new ideas new thoughts, new methods of working, new ways," he added.
'CONGRESS FACING DEEP EXISTENTIAL CRISIS'
Earlier, Jairam Ramesh had said that the Congress is facing an 'existential crisis'.
Ramesh also said that the business as usual approach will not work against Modi and Shah, and advocated for change to make Congress relevant.
"Yes, the Congress party is facing a very serious crisis," Ramesh told PTI in an interview.
He said the Congress had faced an 'electoral crisis' from 1996 to 2004, when it was out of power. The party had also faced a similar crisis in 1977, when it lost the elections held soon after the Emergency.
"But today, I would say that the Congress is facing an existential crisis. It is not an electoral crisis. The party really is in deep crisis," he said, when asked whether the threat of 'poaching' of MLAs posed by the BJP in Gujarat had forced the party to transport its MLAs to Karnataka to ensure party leader Ahmed Patel's victory in the Rajya Sabha polls.
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