NEW DELHI: With the blame game rife in the grand old party following the Delhi poll debacle, interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi has launched an exercise whereby leaders would be asked to give their feedback on the dismal showing. The party, which went into battle on the promise of restoring ‘Congress wali Dilli (Delhi of the Congress)’, couldn’t even open its account on the counting day, equalling its showing in the 2015 Assembly elections.
AAP-rebel-turned-Congress leader Alka Lamba, whose bid to secure a fresh term from the Chandni Chowk Assembly constituency ended in defeat, met Sonia, giving her the reasons why the party couldn’t improve on its 2015 performance. The party has suffered a precipitous fall from the heights of 2003, when it stormed the hustings in the national capital and enjoyed an uninterrupted reign till 2013.Lamba said she not only discussed the election results with her party president but also deliberated on the steps to lend more muscle, in terms of organisation and resource, to the Congress in the national capital.
Lamba said that despite coming out on the losing side, she would meet the people of her constituency and thank them for their support. Though she left the AAP for the Congress in the hope of a fresh mandate from Chandni Chowk, she even lost her security deposit in the polls.While many Congress leaders had blamed the party’s Delhi affairs in-charge PC Chacko in the wake of the loss, the veteran leader claimed the rot started in 2013 when Dikshit held the party’s city reins.However, he later denied making any such statement.