Mani Shankar Aiyar backs Jairam Ramesh, says Congress needs new ideas, thoughts

After the senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh’s admission that the party is facing “existential crisis,” another party veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar on Thursday criticised the party by saying that it should look at reality.

"Congressmen should look at reality. We have only 44 MPs and faced serious setbacks," said Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Speaking on the Ramesh's statement, Aiyar said that we should look beyond the expression that was used and Congress should look for new ideas, new thoughts, new methods of working and new ways.    

Earlier on Monday, Ramesh said that Congress is facing an “existential crisis” and pitched for “a collective effort” by party leaders to “overcome” the challenges it faced from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.

Ramesh also said that business as usual approach will not work against Modi and Shah and advocated for a flexibility in approach to make Congress relevant.

“Yes, the Congress party is facing a very serious crisis,” Ramesh told 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.

Also read: Congress is facing ‘existential crisis’, says Jairam Ramesh