Revolutionary change needed in Congress: Aiyar

Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar said Tuesday that the Congress Party needed a revolutionary change in structure.

"The Congress needs a revamp and reorganization in the party structure. It's too late for introspection. I think we need a serious revolutionary change in our organisation," said Aiyar

"We have a lot of recommendations. The Uma Shankar Dikshit and the A.K Antony introspection reports are already there since over a decade, but, we still have not implemented them in our party," he added.

Furthermore, he said, that the Congress has ideas and plans already but none of them have been applied yet.

"There is the reality of 32 lakh elected representatives at the grass root level, out of whom; at least 10 lakh must be Congress persons. If we can mobilize these 10 lakh and make them constitute the primary membership of the party, only then, will they have a sense of ownership and participation, he said.

"Then, they do not have to run around doing a Ganesh Parikrama," he added.

He also said the announcement of Lok Sabha candidates should be made early.

"We need to ensure that candidates for the Lok Sabha are announced six months in advance, and MLAs three months in advance. This was already accepted by the working committee, he said.

"It is true that we cannot make these changes by 2014 but any government that comes into effect in 2014, is going to collapse within months. In that case, there will be fresh elections in 2015. That way, if we lose now, we will have a year or two in which we can reorganize and refit ourselves and once we do that we will come back with a thumping majority, like we always have," claimed Aiyar.

He added Congress needed to get to a stage where the voice of an ordinary member is effective in the highest council of the party.