Rahul taking steps to bring opposition parties together: Aiyar

Senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar today said Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was taking initiatives to bring all the opposition parties on one platform to oppose the BJP-RSS and expressed confidence in his leadership.
He was replying to questions from reporters on what he thought were the chances of the Congress staging a turnaround under Rahul's leadership.
When pointed that most of the Congress vice-president's initiatives had failed in the past, Aiyar said, "We (Congress) are in a difficult position. If we take too many initiatives, it will be said that we are trying to dominate. If we don't, it will be said that what's the point in others coming together when we are not there. The card is being revealed slowly."

Commenting on the Congress' role in forging an opposition unity, he said initially, the party did not want to send out a message that it was "trying to stand up by depending on others".
"We first wanted to see how many (parties) were coming together. Now, after six months, we can see that some of the parties are still standing with us and some like Nitish Kumar have switched over (to the NDA). We are now in a better position to understand who will stand with us and who will go against us (in 2019)," Aiyar said, adding that the party still had two years to "strengthen" the coalition of opposition parties.

The Congress had the expertise in running coalition governments or being a part of them, he said.