Facing A Different India: Ahmed Patel's Daughter's Wake-Up Call To Congress

Mumtaz Patel, daughter of Congress' Ahmed Patel, has posted a wake-up message on social media platform X, reprimanding the party over its performance in the Bihar elections. Asked about the matter, she said the party needs to change with the times. 

"We cannot function the way we did 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago. We are facing a different India. We are facing a different government. We are facing different opponents. And the way we are going is not the way we will be able to fight this system," she told NDTV's Shiv Aroor in an exclusive interview. 

In her post on X, formerly Twitter, Mumtaz Patel warned the party not to give "excuses", indulge in "blame game" or "introspection".

"Till when will countless loyal ground workers who have stayed with the party through thick and thin wait to see success? Instead, it is failure after failure due to power concentrated in the hands of a few who are totally disconnected with ground reality and are responsible for the misery and rout of the grand old party time and again... these same people will be rewarded again and again because they have made themselves indispensable with their control and power," her post read.

Asked if this group is giving senior leader Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi wrong advice, she said: "I don't know whether they're giving incorrect advice or correct advice. But at the end of the day, we are not winning elections."

"At least back in the days when there was a coterie, which my father was a part of, as they say, we were winning elections. We were running a successful government. We had alliances in place. We had the alliance dharma going. We had respect for each other," she added. 

Today, the Congress with 20 per cent vote share, is the "principal Opposition party that has a base across the country," she said. "We are the only party that has base across the country.  But to see it going this way does not make any sense to me," she added.

The Opposition Grand Alliance has had one of its worst scores in the recently concluded elections in Bihar.  The alliance could scrape together just 35 seats compared to the NDA's score of 202 of 243 seats. 

Tejashwi Yadav's RJD got 25 seats, the Congress six, the CPM one, the CPI(ML)(L) two and IIP one.