Congress in gloom after fifth successive defeat in states

New Delhi: A pall of gloom descended on the AICC headquarters, a day after Congress suffered the ignominy of a duck in Delhi elections, the fifth successive debacle of the grand old party in various states across the country.

There was no official word on whether the Congress high command has accepted the resignation of AICC General Secretary Ajay Maken who quit taking the moral responsibility for the defeat.

Maken, who met party chief Sonia Gandhi today, has declared that he was taking responsibility as he was the chairman of the party's campaign committee for Delhi.  Apparently to keep the media at bay, the AICC cancelled the briefing scheduled for the day.

Barring senior leaders like AICC Treasurer Motilal Vora, hardly any senior leader came to the party headquarters or was there for long.

Party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi, on Twitter, called for “deep and genuine” introspection to revive the party's fortunes.

“Congress not only has to do deep and genuine introspection bt a concrete roadmap with time deadlines to implement the results of Tht Manthan,” he said in a series of tweets.

He said “After Delhi, our attention now turns to Bihar” where Assembly polls are due by the yearend.

In an apparent dig at BJP, he said, “The fear of losing, followed by actual defeat is an imp safeguard of democracy over incumbents—in this case BJP--& leads to better gov.”

He also wished the New Delhi CM all the luck in his endeavours. “Also hope the Centre leaves no support unturned in their support for a better Delhi.”

The humiliating defeat in the national capital is the fifth successive debacle for the Congress since the Lok Sabha elections in May last year. It lost power in Haryana, where it was in power under Bhupinder Singh Hooda government, and Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir, the three states where it shared power in a coalition.

In fact, a matter of serious concern for the Congress in the capital is the fact that the its vote share has gone down from 24.55 per cent in the 2013 elections to 9.7 per cent. It was around 15 per cent in the Lok Sabha polls.

The contrast in Delhi is most glaring in view of the fact that Congress was at the helm for 15-long years till 13 months ago under the leadership of Shiela Dikshit, who held the distinction of longest-serving woman Chief Minister in independent India.