NEWDELHI: UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi on Sunday said there was no internal talk of any possible Congress-BSP alliance. “We are not talking or thinking about any alliance now, as we are hopeful that people will give a good mandate in our favour,” she said.
Her views, pooh-poohing any talk of Congress-BSP alliance, were also echoed by UP Congress legislature party chief, Pramod Tiwari. She also criticised the State governance under BSP Chief Minister Mayawati’s rule.
Meanwhile, though Rahul Gandhi had been aggressively campaigning in UP, Congress party general secretary Digvijay Singh argued that the results could be viewed as a litmus test of the Gandhi scion’s performance.
“Leadership only gives a face to a party and determines the direction in which the wind blows, but turning this into votes in largely the work of party workers,” he said.
Pouncing on Congress’s strategy to try to deflect any blame from Rahul Gandhi, the BJP asserted that the Congress leader would be “totally responsible” for the party’s debacle in Uttar Pradesh.
“The Congress has started saying Rahul Gandhi will not be responsible for loss. They have realised that Congress is slipping to fourth position,” said BJP leader Kalraj Mishra. He said only when Congress realised that it was going towards disaster, there has been a change in tone.