Results ‘not bad’, party ‘little down’ in UP, says Rahul
After the drubbing at the hands of the BJP in the recently-concluded Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Assembly elections, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi called for structural changes in the party. He broke his silence on Tuesday and stressed that the results were “not bad” though the party was “a little down” in Uttar Pradesh.
It was the grand old party’s worst performance in UP where it could only manage seven out of the 403 Assembly seats even after a pre-poll tie-up with the ruling Samajwadi Party. Mr Gandhi alleged that the success of the BJP was largely due to polarisation of voters.
After questions were raised about his leadership after the poll debacle, he called for initiating changes within, and hailed the role of regional leaders who fought and emerged victorious. He said, “As far as the Congress Party is concerned, we do need to make structural and organisational changes, and that is a fact.”
He said the Congress formed its government in Punjab and “won the
Continued from Page 1 elections in Manipur and Goa.” “That is not a bad result. It is true that we lost the election in UP and Uttarakhand,” he said. There are “ups and down” for every party, Mr Gandhi said, adding, “We had a little down in UP which is fine, we accept it. But we have an ideological fight with the BJP and we will continue to do that.”
Several senior leaders of the Congress have already started demanding accountability to be fixed for the poll debacle. Congress spokesperson Sandeep Dikshit said, “It is high time that we fix accountability …it happens after every election debacle that we talk about changes but nothing happens.” He said that accountability should be fixed even for senior leaders.
Congress MP and general secretary in-charge of Odisha, B.K. Hariprasad, has resigned from all organisational posts after the local body election in Odisha where the party stood third.