Rahul asks Cong leaders to be united in Assembly polls

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday met senior leaders of the party's Delhi unit including its president Sheila Dikshit and advised them to put up a united face before the opposition in the upcoming Assembly elections next year.

Gandhi was also urged by leaders of the Delhi unit to reconsider his decision to step down as party chief but the former did not show any signs of relenting, a senior Delhi Congress leader present in the meeting said.

Gandhi asked the Delhi Congress leaders to avoid giving statements to the media that could hurt the interests of the party, he said.

Besides Dikshit, All India Congress Committee (AICC) in charge of Delhi Congress, PC Chacko and the party candidates who contested the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls in the capital were present in the meeting.

"The Delhi Congress leaders discussed the upcoming Assembly elections with Rahul Gandhi, who asked them to put up a united face before the opposition during the polls," the leader said.

In the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress contested all the seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi independently but faced defeat at the hands of BJP, which won all the seats.

However, Congress managed to push back Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) candidates to the third spot on five of the seven seats.

Another senior party leader, who attended the meeting said Gandhi outlined this fact and asked the Delhi leaders to carry this forward and ensure a better performance in Assembly polls.

Differences in the Congress had surfaced before the Lok Sabha polls, as a section of leaders including Chacko and former Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken batted for an alliance with the AAP to defeat the BJP.

The other section led by Dikshit stoutly resisted an alliance with the AAP, which finally failed to materialise as the two sides could not reach an agreement. The two sides differed over seat sharing formula in Delhi as well as in Haryana.

Earlier this month, two Congress leaders had demanded replacement of Dikshit and Chacko over the massive defeat of the party in the Lok Sabha elections.