Modi can't be defeated single-handedly: Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar bats for grand alliance

Expressing disappointment over the dismal show in the recent assembly polls, Congress veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar on Thursday said it is high time the grand old party forms a grand alliance to ensure the BJP's defeat in the 2019 general election.

"The party needs to rethink its strategies and restructure the organisation to stay in the political arena. We need to form an inclusive alliance instead of an inclusive party. The inability to nurture strong regional leaders has been our biggest failure leading to a string of electoral defeats," Aiyar told ANI.

Asserting that nobody can take the place of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Aiyar laid emphasis on inclusion of young leaders in the party.

"Only a fool will say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi can be defeated single-handedly," he added.

The Congress leader further said the favourable result in Punjab shows that strong regional leaders can make a difference to the party's fortunes.

The BJP's dominant show in assembly polls has put a big question mark over the political fate of the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance in the run up to the 2019 general elections.

Riding high on Prime Minister Modi's growing popularity, the BJP won 325 seats in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections.

Despite emerging as the single largest party in Goa and Manipur, the party failed to move in quickly to cobble together alliances with smaller parties to capture power.

The BJP, which ended up second behind the Congress in a split mandate, was also successful in proving its majority on the floor of the Goa Assembly today with the support of 22 MLAs.