Congress needs major surgery, says Veerappa Moily
New Delhi: Asserting that the Congress needs a “major surgery” in the wake of the Lok Sabha polls debacle, senior leader M Veerappa Moily has said that Rahul Gandhi must carry out a complete overhaul of the party by holding elections at every level and quell internal bickering with an “iron hand.”
In an interview to PTI, Moily said that Rahul alone can lead the party and and the AICC in-charges and chief of states should be held accountable for the poor performance of the party.
“He (Rahul) said that owning moral responsibility he will step down. (The Congress) Working Committee (CWC) has been unanimous to say that he has to continue. That holds good even today,” he said.
Moily said it was not fair that Rahul Gandhi, who took over the reins of the Congress in 2017 to quit as president after being at the helm only for about one and a half years and that he must be given a substantial time to prove himself.
Moily said that Rahul should immediately step in with the elections in states such as Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and Haryana coming up.
Appealing Rahul to remain in the saddle and bring about dynamic changes, Moily said the idea is that “we have to have a major surgery over the party.”
“Elections at every level (must be carried out) so that we can demonstrate to the world and the country that we have fresh blood. Getting in fresh blood is important, that has been clogged somewhere in the party organisation. This is what Rahul Gandhi has to do and he alone can do it,” Moily said.
Only then, there will be a rejuvenation of the party, otherwise leaders who hold onto the party like a fiefdom will continue to do so, said Moily, the former Karnataka chief minister, who lost the Lok Sabha polls from Chikballapur.
Rahul should quell the bickering in the party with an “iron hand without any mercy”, Moily said.