Sonia: Congress failed to connect with people

Reflecting on the Congress debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi on Monday wondered whether the party was in tune with the aspirations of the people, particularly the youth.

Addressing the first meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to take stock of the Lok Sabha defeat, Sonia asked party leaders to introspect on the results in all seriousness and in depth.

“We should try and understand why our support base has eroded to this extent. Have we fully identified with aspirations of our people,” she said.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was leading the party’s election campaign which appeared to a patch on the aggressive pitch made by the BJP led by Narendra Modi.

“Have we fully identified ourselves with the aspirations of our people? Are we in tune with the aspirations of the youth? We should also ask ourselves, have we failed, both as government and party, to communicate our achievements,” she said.

Agressive campaign

Sonia also said that the message of the Congress was lost in an aggressive campaign by the BJP, which also took to polarising voters.

“The message of the Congress was lost in the din and dust raised by an aggressive and polarising campaign by our opponents, which was backed by unlimited resources and a hostile media,” she said.

Sonia said the results of the elections were “extremely bad” but asked party workers “not to get disheartened”. The Congress president also appreciated the stewardship of the UPA government by Manmohan Singh during the past 10 years.