Arrogance, public disconnect led to Cong rout in HP: Rahul
POSTPOLL ANALYSIS Party to give preference to leaders with clean image
SHIMLA: All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi on Friday sent a strong signal across the party’s rank and file in Himachal that the high command will give preference to the workers and leaders with clean image.
Rahul observed that public disconnect and arrogance of leaders, particularly those in power, were the key factors that led to the Congress’ debacle in the recently concluded HP polls.
The AICC chief, who was on his maiden visit to the state after becoming Congress president, was accompanied by party leaders Sushil Kumar Shinde and Ranjeet Ranjan.
The duo had a few days ago met Himachal Congress leaders to assess the loss before submitting the final report.
The internal report based on the feedback from the party workers and legislators attributed the reasons of Congress defeat to factionalism, resource crunch, arrogance among party leaders and public disconnect.
Congress had managed to secure just 21 seats as BJP romped home with 44 seats in the 68-member assembly, election for which was held on November 9 and results were announced on December 18. Several among losing candidates had termed infighting, sabotage by local leaders and lack of resources as the factors responsible.
Rahul has now asked the party leaders and workers to unite in Congress’ fight against BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.