Congress reduced to a crowd around a family: Jaitley

Lucknow, May 27: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that Congress has today been reduced to "crowd around a family", which faces all the challenges faced by a political party centred around a family.

"The hold of BJP is growing in the politics of all states be it Bengal or Kerala... what will happen to Congress no one knows", Jaitley said today at the Vikas parv of the party to observe two years of Modi government.

"Congress has been reduced to a crowd around a family.... their problem is the one faced by a party which is centred around a family", he said.

"The first problem of such a party is to see that no leadership develops outside the family, the second is that if there is a powerful generation like Nehru or Indira they make the party strong but if the next generation does not have that strength it drowns alongwith the party", Jaitley said.

"Their problem is that they cannot attract crowd without the family and if the family is kept together the crowd does not grow", he said. "It does not seem to now improve...the meaning of Congress free country does not mean the end of the party but the political culture followed by it and remove the blot it had put on way of governance.

"As an opponent we want Congress to remain in opposition", he said. Making a mention of the idea of federal front mooted by Lalu Prasad, Jaitley said "it was a tried tested and failed idea tried many times in the past".

"The nucleus of any party should have power...for winning Bihar they needed the support of Lalu and now are talking about a federal front", he said adding that a party having 15 to 20 seats cannot give stability.

Stressing that BJP has been a nationalist party, Jaitley lashed out at the mainstream parties for aligning with fringe elements.

"Some people felt they would be regarded as progressive if they aligned with those raising a 'bharat todo ' campaign in Jadavpur and Jawaharlal Nehru University..they have been rejected by the country", he said.

"We hope that Congress will learn something from it...they made a historical mistake in this ...we have a historical opportunity to strengthen party, take the country ahead towards development and show that an honest governance is possible.

In the history of BJP, it today is at its peak in strength, he said.

PTI