Structural changes needed in party, poll result ‘not bad’: Rahul
NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that structural and organisational changes were needed in the Congress even as he stressed that the assembly poll results were “not bad” though the party was “a little down” in Uttar Pradesh.
Breaking his silence on the party’s worst-ever performance in the northern state of UP, where it bagged only seven of the 403 Assembly seats after a tie-up with Samajwadi Party, the Congress vice president alleged that BJP had won largely due to polarisation.
On questions being raised on his leadership after the party’s poor performance in UP and Uttarakhand, he called for initiating changes within and hailed the role of regional leaders who fought assembly polls and emerged victorious.
“As far as the Congress party is concerned, we do need to make structural and organisational changes and that is a fact,” he said, while replying to queries on the results of the elections to five states that were declared on March 11.
He said the Congress formed its government in Punjab and won the election in Manipur and Goa.
“That is not a bad result. It is true that we lost the election in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand,” he said.
There are “ups and down” for every party, Rahul said, adding, “We had a little down in UP which is fine, we accept it. But we have a ideological fight with the BJP and we will continue to do that.” The Congress leader congratulated the saffron party for its victory in the state but accused it of polarising voters. “I would like to say that the BJP won the election in UP and I would like to congratulate them. Why they won it, there are multiple reasons. Large part of it is polarisation. But the fact is that they won the election,” he said.
The Congress has been losing one state after another after the party’s poorest ever performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections when it was reduced to a mere strength of 44.