Face reality to draw right lessons: Sonia Gandhi on Congress' dismal show in Assembly polls
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday expressed disappointment over the party's poor performance in the Assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal and Kerala. Addressing a crucial meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), she said the party has to take note of its serious setbacks in assembly polls and face the reality to draw the right lessons.
The CWC was convened today to discuss the recent election results wherein the grand old party failed to put a fight. The Congress didn't win even a single seat in West Bengal and failed to pose a challenge to the incumbent governments in Kerala and Assam. The party lost Puducherry to BJP. In Tamil Nadu, the DMK-led alliance of which the Congress is a constituent managed to dislodge the AIADMK government.
"We have to take note of our serious setbacks. To say that we are deeply disappointed is to make an understatement. I intend to set up a small group to look at every aspect that caused such reverses and report back very quickly," she said in her opening remarks at the CWC meeting.
"We need to candidly understand why in Kerala and Assam we failed to dislodge the incumbent governments, and why in West Bengal we drew a complete blank. These will yield uncomfortable lessons, but if we do not face up to the reality, if we do not look the facts in the face, we will not draw the right lessons," she added.
Sonia Gandhi further said that the schedule to elect the new Congress president will also be discussed at the meeting.
She later hit out at the Modi government over the handling of the pandemic situation.
"The situation has become even more catastrophic. Governance failures have become even more stark. Scientific advice has been willfully ignored and the country is paying a horrendous price for the Modi government's neglect of the pandemic, indeed its willful patronage of super-spreader events that were allowed for partisan gains," she said.
India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3.5 lakh daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals in several states are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.
