JOIN USPoll results tell us clearly that we need to put our house in order: Sonia Gandhi
With Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra facing poll setbacks, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday offered to take responsibility for the defeat in the assembly elections, which was rejected by the party.
74-year-old Gandhi, who had stayed away from the election campaign on health grounds, made the offer at the meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) called to deliberate on the poll reverses and asked party leaders to face the reality and draw lessons from it.
Rahul, who led the party’s campaign in Kerala and Assam, did not attend the meeting as he was recuperating from Covid-19, while the dissenters Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma remained largely silent during the deliberations.
After the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul had stepped down as Congress president taking moral responsibility for the party’s defeat, but continued to be the de facto leader of the party having a say in all the crucial decision-making processes in the organisation.
“These results tell us clearly that we need to put our house in order,” said the Congress president and announced the setting up of a fact-finding committee to analyse the results.
Gandhi also asked the party to conduct the elections for the post of Congress president on June 23, as per the schedule drawn by the party’s Election Authority.
However, the CWC unanimously resolved to defer the elections temporarily in the midst of these challenging times, read a resolution adopted at the meeting which cited the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic.
Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said the deferment of polls was not open-ended and could be held in the next two-three months after the abatement of the pandemic.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot opposed the holding of elections for the post of Congress president citing the Covid-19 situation and was supported by Azad and Sharma.
During the meeting, AICC in-charges of the poll-bound states made presentations on the reasons for the party’s defeat in Kerala and Assam, and its failure to open its account in West Bengal.
AICC General Secretary Tariq Anwar said in Kerala that the Left parties had benefited immensely due to the relief work carried out during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, while AICC General Secretary Jitendra Singh blamed the loss in Assam to a divided leadership and the dent in the party’s vote-share by local outfits such as Rajor Dal.
In West Bengal, AICC in-charge Jitin Prasada said the alliance with the Indian Secular Front led by the Furfura Sharif cleric had damaged the prospects of the Congress.