Why is Mani Shankar Aiyar angry with Rahul Gandhi? Does he want a Rajya Sabha seat?

New Delhi: Former Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has ruffled many feathers in the Congress party by going public against Rahul Gandhi and his trusted aide KC Venugopal. He also did not spare Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Ramesh Chennithala.

Aiyar went to the extent of calling Venugopal a "rowdy" and described himself as a "Nehruvian" and not a "Rahulian".
"Can you imagine what is the condition of a party which raises a rowdy like KC Venugopal to the level of the Sardar Patel..., to Rahul Gandhi?" he told ANI.

#WATCH | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: Mani Shankar Aiyar says, "Can you imagine what is the condition of a party which raises a rowdy like KC Venugopal to the level of Sardar Patel, to Rahul Gandhi? That is all I need to say as an answer." pic.twitter.com/wDUdlRnHQU

— ANI (@ANI) February 16, 2026

Aiyar dismissed claims by several Congress leaders that he was no longer a member of the grand old party.
“I am in the Congress party, I haven’t left it. Mr Rahul Gandhi has forgotten that I am a member of the party. Therefore, I am a Gandhian, I am a Nehruvian, I am a Rajivian, but I am not a Rahulian,” he asserted.

Aiyar further riled the Congress by backing Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who belongs to the CPI(M), and insisted that he is going to secure a third consecutive term in the upcoming assembly elections in the southern state.

Aiyar claimed that the Congress party has a bleak future in Kerala, as its leaders are all at each other’s throats. “Do you think the people of Kerala don’t know what is happening in the Congress leadership? At least in Pinarayi’s government, there is discipline."

Aiyar also pitched Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK supremo MK Stalin’s name as the INDIA bloc's head.

“If the INDIA bloc is consolidated, I think the best man to consolidate it is MK Stalin. Rahul Gandhi can become the Prime Minister of India, provided there is somebody to spend all his time consolidating the INDIA bloc. The one person who has been raising issues and not slogans… What Stalin has done over the past year is to raise every single point that is relevant to federalism in India.

Therefore, I believe that he is the best person to become chairman of the INDIA bloc, and he has the great virtue that he won’t stand in the way of Rahul Gandhi becoming the PM," he said.

Congress leaders claim that Aiyar was upset with Rahul Gandhi and KC Venugopal because he wanted to be nominated to the Rajya Sabha, but the two have refused to entertain him. "That is why he is so angry these days," a Congress leader said. 

As many as 75 seats in the Rajya Sabha will go to polls this year. These elections will be held in 22 states — Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Odisha, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Haryana, Meghalaya, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Uttarakhand.

While the Congress is likely to lose one seat each in Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat, it may win one extra seat in Haryana, Karnataka and Himachal Pradesh.