NEW DELHI: Knives are out in the Congress over yet another dismal poll performance, with many questioning the handling of affairs by Rahul Gandhi’s appointees, the failure to check infighting besides flagging the need for introspection to prevent decimation.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has called for the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting to assess the abysmal performance in five states.
On the party’s rout, Congress media in-charge R S Surjewala said that the CWC would fix the responsibility and that the party leaders need to introspect.
Some leaders questioned the central deputation and alleged they were involved in selling tickets. In Punjab, party joint secretary Krishna Allavaru and Rajasthan MLA Harish Chowdhary were given charge while Rahul’s close aide Sandeep Singh handled UP.
The G23 leaders are also expected to meet soon to discuss future courses of action. Suspended leader Sanjay Jha was first to question the party for ridiculing dissenting voices.
‘‘G-23 got ridiculed. I got suspended. But we had warned the Congress leadership. No one listened. No one cared. Will the real Congresspersons stand up?” he tweeted, adding that Sachin Pilot should take over the reins of the party.
Another group member Shashi Tharoor tweeted that ‘change is unavoidable if we need to succeed.’
Congress MP Jasbir Singh Gill, meanwhile, attacked Chowdhary and general secretary Ajay Maken saying they have to give a lot of explanation for the party’s rout in Punjab.
“Three months before Punjab was surely ours but after the entry of these two for ticket distribution, they ruined the party. They pocketed notes, the Opposition pocketed votes. The high command should review the allotment of tickets and fix responsibility, make accountable the leaders who got tickets for protégé for cash or kind,” he claimed.
The party on Thursday said the results are contrary to its expectations, but it accepts the people's mandate.
Addressing a press conference at the party headquarters here, Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said they may have lost the elections but not their courage and will continue to fight till they emerge victorious.
He said party president Sonia Gandhi will soon convene a meeting of the Congress Working Committee to dwell on the reasons for the defeat and introspect.
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Surjewala said the Congress will reinvent itself and bounce back with a new strategy, adding that it will always stand with the people, raising their issues, including inflation, unemployment and a "sinking" economy.
"We will introspect on the causes of the defeat, work on the organisation and try to do better in the future. We are definitely disappointed but not demoralised. We have only lost the elections, not our courage. We are not going anywhere, we will keep fighting until we win. We will reinvent ourselves and come back with a new strategy," he said.
"Very soon, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will be calling a meeting of the Congress Working Committee to discuss threadbare all the issues that affected us in the five states."
"All issues will be discussed threadbare. We have to do course correction, we have to introspect and find a way ahead. We have to ensure that people-centric issues continue to be relevant in our democracy. For if people's issues are dead, then that will be the death-knell for our democracy," the Congress spokesperson said.
In a message to those indulging in intra-party rivalry due to which it lost the poll battle in some states, Surjewala said the leaders at the state level would have to introspect on whether they are cutting the same tree that they are sitting on.
They will also have to introspect on whether for desperately achieving something in politics, they are not strengthening other parties by defeating the Congress, he added.
"If we break the branch on which we are sitting on, then the tree, the branch and the leaders will also fall as has been evident today in some states," the Congress leader said.
He said leaders are the face of the party on the ground and every state leader needs to seriously introspect, re-examine and rethink whether the war of positions among themselves is undermining the party's position.
"Whether the war or the quest for positions has become so bitter that we are harming or cutting the very tree that the Congress people are sitting upon. That is a question each one of us must think about," Surjewala said.
In Punjab, he said even though the party presented a humble, clean and grounded leadership, it failed to overcome the anti-incumbency of four-and-a-half years of the Amarinder Singh government and people voted for change.
"The election results of the five states have come against the party's expectations. We were expecting good results in Uttarakhand, Goa and Punjab, but we accept that we failed to get the people's blessings."
"We accept the verdict of the people and congratulate the Aam Aadmi Party, Bhagwant Mann and Arvind Kejriwal for their victory in Punjab," Surjewala said.
In Uttar Pradesh, he said even though the Congress was successful in reviving the party organisation, it "could not convert public opinion into seats".
The Congress was successful in reaching every street and locality in Uttar Pradesh, Surjewala said, adding, "We put up a tough fight in Uttarakhand and Goa, but could not emerge victorious."
"This is a lesson that we need to work harder on the ground," he said.
"We made every effort to keep these elections away from the issues of casteism and religious polarisation. But thanks to the BJP's massive campaign, emotional issues dominated over the issues of education, health, inflation and unemployment," he added.
In a democracy, the decision of the people is paramount, Surjewala said.
The Congress takes this opportunity to extend its felicitations to all political parties and individuals who have won the poll battle in the five states, he said.
"In a democracy, the decision of the people is ultimate and we completely bow before the verdict of the people. We accept that we have not been able to completely win the trust of the people in these states," Surjewala said.
The Congress stood out as a party that tried to attach primacy to the issues of inflation, unemployment, a sinking economy, better infrastructure, better facilities for health and education over the issues of division, hatred, religious polarisation and caste division, he said, adding, "It does seem that the emotional issues did overtake these fundamental issues affecting the lives of people."
"We are disappointed, but determined to work with the people of India to resurrect ourselves from the grassroots by having a detailed introspection," Surjewala said.
Former Congress leader Ashwani Kumar, who quit the party ahead of the Punjab Assembly polls, on Thursday said the state election results signal the "endgame" for the grand old party and the emergence of an alternative political narrative in the country.
He said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are the principal engines of this alternative political narrative and hoped that this is the beginning of a new and refreshing politics that is responsive to the sensitivities of the people.
According to trends available at 2 pm, the AAP was leading in 91 out of the 117 assembly seats in Punjab.
The trends indicated that the ruling Congress has been decimated in Punjab, while the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which contested the polls in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), has failed to make much impact.
"The election results signal the endgame for the Congress as the natural party of governance. An alternative political narrative is emerging with the AAP and the TMC as its principal engines, with a ragtag Congress desperately pretending to be relevant, unless it undergoes a transformative change," Kumar said.
He said the changed mood of the nation is reflected in the emergence of the BJP as the dominant national party.
"Its (BJP's) triumphant return in UP and other states must compel us to revisit our understanding of the present societal reality in which the BJP is not seen as a communal or casteist party," he added.
Assembly election result trends showed the BJP heading towards government formation in four of the five states that went to polls.
The former Union minister further said, "Perhaps, it is time to anchor meaningful politics around the pressing issues of our time, moving away from obsessive negativism and personal animosities.
Kumar said the Punjab election results "signal the rejection of arrogance" and "politics of entitlement".
"Let this be the beginning of a new and refreshing politics responsive to sensitivities of the people," he said.
The results are historic as they represent a decisive voter assertion, Kumar said.
"Voters have opted for a new entrant where a clear choice was visible as in the case of Punjab, but have preferred the status quo where a credible and clear choice was not available as in UP," he said.
Kumar resigned from the Congress on February 15, after a 46-year association, saying he can best serve national causes outside the party fold.
Kumar had predicted an AAP wave in Punjab at the time of his resignation.
He has not spelt out his future political plans or which party he will be joining.
TMC on Thursday asked Congress to merge with it and fight against BJP under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee after its rout in the assembly poll in five states where votes were counted on Thursday.
This drew a sharp retort from the grand old party which accused it of being an "agent of BJP".
Asked to comment on the party's poor show in Goa, TMC leaders said the party is satisfied with the votes it secured given the fact that the party had opened its unit in the coastal state a few months ago.
BJP is racing to a second straight win in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh and is dominating the score chart in Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur, while the Aam Aadmi Party won a landslide victory in Punjab and wrested the state from the Congress, diminishing the party even further.
Congress is now at an all time low, being in power only in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
It is ahead in only two seats in Uttar Pradesh with a vote share of just 2.3 per cent -- notwithstanding the high-decibel campaign by the Gandhi siblings Rahul and Priyanka.
"From the results, it is proven that Congress is now just limited to two states. Congress has failed to fight against the BJP."
"TMC has shown how you can put up a fight against the BJP and defeat it (in Bengal). It is high time that Congress merges with TMC and fights under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee," senior TMC leader and state minister Firhad Hakim said.
Echoing him, TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh said Congress's failure to put up a fight has led to BJP's victory in the assembly poll in four of the five states.
"We have been saying this for a long that Congress in its present form is not suited to fight against the BJP.
To fight against a formidable force like BJP, you need a leader like Mamata Banerjee," he said.
Reacting to TMC's jibe, West Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said "agents of BJP" should not advise the party how to fight against the saffron camp.
"TMC is the biggest agent of the BJP. Rather TMC should merge with Congress if it is so serious about fighting against BJP," Chowdhury, who is also the leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, said.
On Trinamool Congress (TMC) drawing a blank in Goa, where it contested for the first time this year, Ghosh defended the party's performance saying "We had opened our units in Goa just a few months back.
So we are happy that people of Goa are now aware of the party's symbol and flag.
We are satisfied with the votes we got; we want to work hard to further increase our organisation in the coastal state".
The West Bengal BJP unit, which has lost much of its steam after the defeat in the state poll last year, said the party's performance in the four states is the victory of developmental politics pursued by it.
"We don't want to comment on TMC's proposal for merger of Congress as both are family-run parties," BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said.
Senior Congress leader and party's deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Anand Sharma congratulated the Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday for its victory in Punjab and hoped that its government will deliver on the electoral promises.
"Congratulations to Arvind Kejriwal for Aam Admi Party's victory in Punjab. We hope that the new government delivers on its electoral promises," he said on Twitter.
Sharma is one of the leaders of the G-23, which has been critical of Congress leadership and demanded organisational overhaul.
His colleague and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi took a swipe at the AAP's leadership in Punjab, alleging that hey will be in "high spirits".
"From the preliminary looks of it, the Aam Aadmi party cadre & their CM face in Punjab will be in high spirits today," Singhvi tweeted.
Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan, who was part of the `Group of 23' which had demanded reforms in the Congress organization, on Thursday said the election results in five states were "frustrating but not unexpected".
The party went to the polls with a "defeated mindset", the former Maharashtra chief minister said, adding that the leaders who had written (to Congress president Sonia Gandhi) about the need for reforms will discuss the issue again.
The Congress failed to oust the BJP from power in Goa, and could not retain power in Punjab which was swept by the Aam Aadmi Party.
Chavan said that in Goa party legislators' issues were not handled properly, and they switched the sides.
Congress fought in Goa with all its might this time, but had to rely on new faces, he noted.
In Punjab, the change in leadership created confusion, but it was felt that caste equations would work in the party's favour (which did not happen), he said.
In Uttar Pradesh, Priyanka Gandhi fought all alone and the entire party should have backed her the way the BJP backs its leaders, Chavan said.
Congress leaders from other states should have been deployed in each constituency, he added.
Congress would have had a fighting chance in Uttarakhand had Harish Rawat been declared the chief ministerial face in time, he opined.
The Aam Aadmi Party will be a national alternative after its Punjab victory, the Congress leader said.
But he also cautioned that "Punjab is not Delhi.
The Congress which had emerged as the single largest party in the 2017 assembly election in Manipur with 28 seats produced one of its worst performances this time winning only five constituencies that relegated it to the fourth position, as per the Election Commission data.
The Janata Dal (United) did not win a single seat in the last election but it bagged six seats, one more than the Congress which had ruled the North-eastern state for 15 years in a row since 2002.
The vote share of the Congress and the JD(U) is 16.83 per cent and 10.77 per cent.
While the Naga People's Front also won five seats, the National People's Party emerged victorious in seven seats to secure the second position.
The BJP bagging 37.83 per cent of the votes polled secured the majority on its own winning .
The saffron party was running the government in the state with several regional parties.
While the BJP retained power for the second consecutive term winning 32 seats in the 60-member assembly, heavyweight candidates of the grand old party lost to the saffron party nominees in the election.
State Congress president and former minister Nameirakpam Loken Singh who had won consecutively from Nambol constituency since 2002 was defeated by the BJP's Th Basanta Singh by a margin of 3,060 votes.
Former three-time deputy chief minister Gaikhangam Gangmei too lost from Nungba seat as BJP nominee D Gangmei, a fresh face, beat him by a margin of 3,786 votes.
However, former three times CM O Ibobi Singh and his son O Surjakumar managed to pull off victories from Thoubal and Khangabo constituencies respectively.
While Ibobi Singh defeated his nearest BJP rival by 2,543 votes, his son's victory margin is much bigger - 7,803.
The JD(U) which shares power with the BJP in Bihar fought independently in Manipur and won six seats.
Former DGP LM Khaute won from Churachandpur seat defeating his nearest BJP rival V Hangkhanlian by a margin of 624 votes.
The party also won in Thangmeiband, Wangkhei, Tipaimukh, Lilong and Jiribam.
However, Thounaojam Brinda, a former police officer well known for her campaign against drug lords of Manipur, lost the electoral battle.
Among five candidates in the fray in Yaiskul seat, the JD(U) nominee secured the third position.
(With PTI Inputs)