Confident of staging a political comeback, former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has said he does not want to make any excuses for his defeat, including the presence of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at his daughter's wedding for his electoral defeat.
Asserting his shocking defeat in an otherwise successful UPA performance in Tamil Nadu would not end his political career, Aiyar has described himself as a "Rajivist".
On whether there was any truth regarding a rumour that a CD of his welcoming Rajapaksa for his daughter's wedding, caused his defeat in Mayiladuthurai in Tamil Nadu in the 2009 elections, Aiyar merely said he did not want to make any excuses for his defeat. "I don't want to make any excuses and I certainly don’t want to put the blame for my defeat on President Mahinda Rajapaksa," he said.
The Congress leader, who was here on a brief visit late this week to deliver a lecture on systems of local governance said, he was hopeful of staging a come back.
"I don't think my political career is at an end. Again and again. I've discovered that the political life is the most uncertain life of all...it is when you reach the top of the hill that your descent begins and only when you hit bottom that your ascent to the summit begins," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"I don't think my political career is at an end. Again and again. I've discovered that the political life is the most uncertain life of all...it is when you reach the top of the hill that your descent begins and only when you hit bottom that your ascent to the summit begins," he said.
{{/usCountry}}On his working with the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, under who his political career commenced, Aiyar told the Sunday Times in an interview that "the experience of working with him was so profound that I regard myself as a Rajivist."