Soon after the results in Madhya Pradesh, Congress campaign committee chief for the assembly elections in the state Jyotiraditya Scindia had called for “major reconstruction” and introspection in the party.
“On all accounts we failed, failed and failed. There is a need to relook.... It is the collective leadership of the party in the state (responsible for the loss),” he had said. Stunned by the drubbing in assembly polls, top leadership of the party had pledged “deep introspection” with a view to “transform” the party to rectify its mistakes ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
“We have to look into the way we took or did not take our message to the people and also we have to look at the way our own party is equipped or not so equipped in running an election,” Sonia Gandhi had yesterday said. At the AICC briefing, party spokesperson Meem Afzal was subjected to a host of questions as to who should be held responsible and whether Sonia and Rahul should not take the blame for the dismal show.
To this, he replied that the Congress Chief and Vice-President had already accepted the party's defeat. He attributed the Congress' rout in Madhya Pradesh to reasons including the inability of the party to take the message of unity of its faction-ridden unit before people and an ineffective campaign.
Afzal said that local issues dominated the polls in all four states, where Congress lost and “question does not arise” about change of leadership and Rahul Gandhi taking a backseat. To a question on whether the party will take action against general secretary in-charges, Afzal said, “this will not be discussed with you. We will discuss all these modalities within the party.”
He also felt that had the food security legislation been brought earlier, it could have benefited the party in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
“Whatever be the results in election, whether we remain in power or not, whether people realise it later, we will implement the scheme that we had promised and have started,” Afzal said.
