The Congress has left its leadership issue unresolved at its Chintan Shivir held recently and the party's present condition is miserable, which is not good for the country's democracy, the Shiv Sena said on Saturday.
In an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana, the party said that while on the one hand the Bharatiya Janata Party has already started preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress is in dire straits.
'Rahul Gandhi has left several issues unresolved at the party's Udaipur conclave. Which is why several leaders in different states are deserting the party. Bihar and Uttar Pradesh units of the Congress don't have state presidents,' the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, which currently shares power with the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress in Maharashtra, said.
The decision of leaders, including Sunil Jakhar, Hardik Patel, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada, to leave the Congress shows the failure of the party leadership, it added.
The Congress should stand by its leaders with mass base in states that are going to polls in the near future, the Sena suggested.
However, the Congress, an ally of the Sena in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, took a dim view of the editorial.
"Congress is a thought and several people have come and gone. Instead of focusing on who leaves or joins Congress, people should worry about the burning issues that the country is facing," the party's state unit president Nana Patole said.
Mumbai Congress president Bhai Jagtap said the grand old party didn't need advise from anyone.