Sonia Gandhi Should Get Back Into Her Old Mode, Start Enforcing Principle Of Accountability: Manish Tewari

Tewari said the idea of the Congress, which is as old as 1885, seems to be “dissipating”.

Congress leader Manish Tewari (File Photo: Getty)

New Delhi: Asserting the grand old party is “looking at an extremely grim situation” post consecutive electoral defeats, Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari has said Congress president Sonia Gandhi should get back into her old mode and start enforcing the principle of accountability across the board that “unfortunately has been lacking” since 2017.

Tewari said the idea of the Congress, which is as old as 1885, seems to be “dissipating”.

“Any political organisation consists of five essential elements — idea, leadership, narrative, organisation and access to resources. On each of these aspects, not only at the national level but even at the state and district levels, the Congress is seriously wanting,” Tewari told The Indian Express in an exclusive interview.

Tewari said the leadership that led the Congress from 1998 till 2017 in the form of Sonia Gandhi is perhaps still the most acceptable leadership to a substantial bulk of the people in the party.

“But then Mrs Gandhi should get back into her old mode and start enforcing the principle of accountability across the board that unfortunately has been lacking since 2017,” he added.

Responding to a poser on whether Rahul Gandhi is not acceptable if Sonia Gandhi is the most acceptable leader to the vast majority of Congressmen, Tewari said it is not a question of binaries.

“We have had these series of defeats post-2019. We did relatively well in Haryana, got into a coalition government in Maharashtra and Jharkhand,” said Tewari.

“In fact, immediately after the 2019 elections, there was a ray of hope in three Assembly elections that were held. But subsequently, we lost all the elections. So, eventually, somebody is responsible for these defeats,” he added.

Tewari’s comments assume significance as the Congress lost in the recent assembly elections in five states, including politically crucial Uttar Pradesh.

Tewari, a part of the G-23 group of dissidents pushing for an organisational revamp of the party and greater accountability, was one of the 18 signatories to a letter, released earlier on Wednesday, that called for a “model of collective and inclusive leadership and decision-making at all levels”.