Jairam Ramesh’s pain- Congress wait for anti-Modi wave, is now ‘crisis of existence’

Kochi: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said on Monday that Congress is going through “crisis of survival”. He advocated coordinated efforts by party leaders to counter the challenges met by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.

Ramesh said, ‘Yes, the Congress party is facing a very serious crisis.’ He said that Congress 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 election right after the Emergency.

He said, ‘But today, I will say that Congress is facing the crisis of survival. This is not electoral crisis. In fact, the party is in serious trouble. ‘ He was asked whether the party sent its MLAs to Karnataka due to the threat of BJP turning the MLAs in Gujarat to ensure party victory of Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha elections.

He justified the decision to send 44 Congress MLAs to a party-ruled Karnataka, saying that in the past the bjp party has also sent its legislators.

Congress shocks waiting for anti-Modi wave

He said that it was wrong for the Congress party to think that the anti-incumbency wave against the Modi-led government would automatically work in BJP-ruled states in the elections. The Congress leader said, “We have to understand that we are in opposition to Modi, Amit Shah and they think differently, separate and if we are not flexible in our approach, then we will become irrelevant.”

He said that Congress party would also have to believe that India has changed. He said, ‘Old slogans do not work, old formula does not work, old mantra does not work. India has changed, Congress party has to be changed ‘.