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Stunned by the massive Lok Sabha defeat for the second time in a row topped by the party President Rahul Gandhi losing in Amethi, the Congress on Thursday went into a huddle as barbs started to get hurled its top leadership and functioning not just from the BJP but also from the alliance partners.
A meeting of the Congress Working Committee was scheduled “at the earliest” to take stalk of the situation even as the ruled out resignation of party president Rahul Gandhi from the post. The defeat of Rahul Gandhi in Amethi and the poor impact of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s presence in Easter Uttar Pradesh have added to the dismay in the Congress camp.
Welcoming the verdict, Rahul Gandhi congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a second term. He, however, did not say anything on the possible reasons for such a massive defeat. “Today is the day of the mandate and I don’t want to colour the decision of the people of India by getting into a long conversation with you (reporters) about what I think, went wrong. Frankly today, it doesn’t matter what I think went wrong, what matter is that the people of India have decided that Narendra Modi is going to be Prime Minister and as an Indian, I fully respect people’s verdict,” he said.
The Congress managers were hoping to win at least 120 seats. The party has won 18 seats and was leading in 33 seats at the time of filing this copy. To claim the post of leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, it needs at least 54 seats.
In States such as Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, where the party is in power, it failed to perform miserably. The Congress’s focus went to Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, where Rahul Gandhi was contesting and Priyanka Gandhi was anchoring the campaign, and the electioneering in States where it had a direct fight with BJP went rudderless. “Other than that, serious infighting in places where we were in power went unaddressed. Complaints such as seats were sold off also went unheard,” a senior Congress leader told BusinessLine.
Rahul Gandhi said Congress workers fought with all their strength and maintained that his fight was ideological. “I would like to tell people who supported us that there is no scope for fear. We will fight together to ensure that our ideology’s victory. There are a lot of people who believe in the ideology of love,” he said. He said he has responded with love with love to whatever abuses hurled at him. “This is my philosophy,” he said.
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