Congress leader and Member of Parliament (MP) Manish Tewari displayed an uncanny openness in suggesting that the opposition will have to vault a strong challenger and articulate an alternative vision to India’s polity to counter the Modi wave in the country. He was speaking at the ThinkEdu Conclave during a conversation with TNIE’s Editor Santwana Bhattacharya. 

"The BJP is not even present uniformly across the country and in many states, it is the opposition parties that are fighting each other. Eventually, if you are looking at a change of government you need an identifiable challenger or a series of identifiable challengers who are willing to articulate an alternative vision. The opposition will require a prime ministerial candidate or plural prime ministerial candidates, who can articulate to the country how they would like to run it differently from the way it has been run over the past nine years.” He said that more than opposition it is actually the citizens who can bring about change in the country.

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In what could reflect the Congress party’s message to other regional parties, Manish Tewari stated that the Congress was willing to concede ground as the big brother among the fractured opposition if such a decision were to lead to a consensus on the opposition projecting itself as a united front. 

In his responses to the session’s host, he cited instances of restlessness on the ground that lead him to believe that a change could be in the offing. “We need a lighting rod around which the restlessness can crystalise,” he said.