Veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday joined the long list of dissenters in the party. Expressing his disappointment over the functioning of the Congress leadership, Shinde said the tradition of debate and dialogue has ended in the party and it needed fixes.
"The Congress tradition of holding sessions on debates and dialogue has ended today. I feel sad about it. Introspection meetings are required. Our policies may be wrong, but to correct them, such sessions are needed," Shinde said at a public function in Pune.
Meanwhile, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut reacted to Shinde's remarks saying that the grand old party should introspect and hold discussions over the concerns put forth by the senior leader.
"If Sushil Kumar Shinde has said something, the party should discuss the issue as he is one of the Congress' oldest soldiers and has struggled a lot for the party," said Raut. "If he is expressing his pain, then his party should give it some thought. We are outsiders but we want the Congress party to stay," he added.
Notably, Shinde is not among the Congress' G-23 leaders who had openly marked their dissent in a letter written to party's interim president Sonia Gandhi last year. The leaders included party veterans Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, etc.