Unlike former MP chief minister Digvijay Singh who flanked him on the right and party state president Rita Bahuguna Joshi who sat on his left, Gandhi did not blame the sorry state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh on the non-Congress parties that have been ruling the state for 18 years now. “We can’t say there are no shortcomings in the party organisation. These exist at the every basic level starting from record keeping, entry of forms and the like,” he said.

Prior to this Gandhi had spoken to the 31 other members of the coordination committee to which he has recently been inducted and also listened to some among the 1500 party workers who had assembled from all parts of the state.

Unlike party president, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, who has launched an anti-Bahujan Samaj Party campaign ever since she took charge of the party in September, Gandhi made it clear the Congress was not struggling against the opposition parties.

 “Our struggle is against ourselves, our inability to represent every segment of the people of the state. Our focus should be to connect with the poor,” he said.

His other grouse was that the young were not attracted towards the party. “We are not being able to attract the youth. We need to make the youth a vehicle of accountability,” Gandhi observed.

He also talked tough, ordering probes against those party workers accused of anti party activities and asking that those district party presidents who had polled less than 5,000 votes in the Assembly elections be stripped of their posts.

Joshi announced that the directive had been put into action immediately. “They will be asked to work for the party like ordinary workers,” she said.