Senior Congress leader Aslam Sher Khan on Tuesday said senior party leaders from Madhya Pradesh should learn from the by-election results in Bihar and come together to pose a challenge to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the State.
While talking to media persons here on Tuesday, Khan said, “The scenario is not as bad as it appears after the severe drubbing in lok Sabha polls this year and State Assembly elections last year. However, senior Congress leaders — Kamal Nath, Digvijay Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia — need to fight like men on the ground instead of doing politics from New Delhi.”
He said former Bihar Chief Ministers lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar gave up their rivalry and entered into an alliance in that State. Their alliance won six out of 10 Assembly seats in the by-elections just three months after the BJP had swept the lok Sabha polls.
"This indicates that a similar unity among Congress leaders in Madhya Pradesh would go a long way in changing the fortunes of the party in the State. This has to be done from now itself and not a year before the Assembly polls. Upcoming civic bodies elections in the State is the best opportunity to come up together," the hockey Olympian said. Pointing out that he had predicted the downfall of the then UPA Government prior to the general elections, he said several factors led to the collapse.
"Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had gone into a retirement mode. There was no clarity on the prime ministerial candidate. Secularism faced a huge defeat for the first time against communalism in India's history," Khan said.
He said some people blame Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's leadership for the failure but the same people do not heed to his advice when he said that 3-4 party leaders from the State have made the Congress their personal fiefdom and were not allowing various sections of society to come into the party folds.
Khan said dalit and minority leaders had been sidelined by the party. Replying to a query, he said that the BJP, in its bid to make 'Congress-free' India, was not expanding its ideology but only luring Congress leaders.