Days after senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said the party is facing an "existential crisis", his colleague Mani Shankar Aiyar too raised concern over the issue, saying “we have only 44 MPs and faced serious setbacks.”
"Congressmen should look at the reality. We have only 44 MPs and faced serious setbacks. What more important is the expression Jairam Ramesh used. He said Congress needs new ideas new thoughts, new methods of working, new ways," Aiyar told ANI.
On Wednesday, Aiyar said that Ramesh's statement should not be ignored as he is a true Congressman.
"Jairam Ramesh has said so many things; I would suggest you read his whole statement. He is a true Congressman, what he has said, shows that he is concerned for the party. Our party is a Constitutional party, if we don't pay attention to different opinions and find out the solution then we cannot go forward," Aiyar said.
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“Yes, the Congress party is facing a very serious crisis," Ramesh had told PTI in an interview.
He said the Congress had faced "electoral crisis" from 1996 to 2004 when it was out of power. The party had also faced "electoral 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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(With agency inputs)
