NEW DELHI: Stressing that the Congress remains a central pillar for a collective national effort to defeat the BJP, party leader Anand Sharma said on Thursday that a broad-based understanding among secular, progressive and democratic parties on people's issues is the need of the hour.
His remarks came a day after TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee remark, "There is no UPA now." To oppose and defeat the BJP, a broad-based understanding and cooperation among secular, progressive and democratic political parties on people's issues is the need of the hour. That will connect with people's expectations," Sharma said on Twitter.
"Congress, as the principal national opposition party, remains a central pillar for a collective national effort," added the deputy leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha and a member of the group of 23 leaders that wrote to Congress president Sonia Gandhi seeking large scale organisational overhaul in the party. Earlier in the day, another G-23 leader, Kapil Sibal, said that without Congress, the UPA will be a body without a soul and asserted that it was time to show opposition unity.
On Wednesday, Banerjee met NCP supremo Sharad Pawar in Mumbai and called for fighting the BJP unitedly while taking a veiled swipe at the Congress leadership. Asked if she wanted Pawar to be the chairperson of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), Banerjee had said, "There is no UPA now".