Hope BJP will fulfill promises it made during the poll campaign
New Delhi : Congratulating BJP for its double victory in Haryana and Maharashtra, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that people in both the states voted for change and that the party will play the role of a constructive opposition and a vigilant.
Sonia expressed hope that the new governments will fulfill the promises made by the BJP during the poll campaign.
“The Congress party accepts the election verdict delivered by the people of Maharashtra and Haryana with humility and resolves to play a constructive and vigilant role. The people of Maharasthra and Haryana trusted us with their mandate thrice and twice respectively. We hope that parties forming the government will fulfill the promises that they made,” Sonia Gandhi said in a statement.
She also thanked the supporters and voters of Congress for having stood by the party and the workers in particular for their tireless and unstinting commitment to the party and its ideology.
Rahul Gandhi said, “We accept the verdict of people. People have voted for change, after 15 years of our government in Maharashtra and 10 years in Haryana.” Unfazed by the rout, Rahul said that the party will work hard to regain the confidence of the people as he congratulated BJP. “I congratulate the BJP on their success. The Congress party will work hard on the ground to once again earn the confidence of the people”.
AICC General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed for Haryana said that the party will sit and analyse the causes of the “below- expected performance”. Taking responsibility for Congress’ rout in Maharashtra Assembly polls, former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said the party’s performance was “disappointing” though it did recover some ground since the Lok Sabha election.
The reactions by the Congress leadership came as it became abundantly clear that a Modi wave has spurred BJP into top position in Maharashtra and Haryana. While BJP appears poised to get a majority on its own in Haryana, it has emerged as single largest pasty in Maharashtra where the Assembly election threw up a hung verdict.
In both the states, Congress has stood third, an assessment many of its party leaders had made. “We are going to finish third in both the states,” a central leader had said yesterday speaking on the condition of anonymity.
However, the party’s attempt to stop BJP from getting a clear majority in both the states did not work as the saffron party won 47 of the 90 seats in Haryana with INLD getting only 19 and Congress 15, much less than what it expected.
In Maharashtra, the party believed that there was some understanding between BJP and NCP and that the latter had decided to break its alliance with Congress much before. After the results were out today with BJP falling short of majority, NCP was quick to declare its intent to support BJP in government formation.
A Congress leader said that NCP broke its alliance with Congress on a “pre-scripted plan”. Congress leaders, however, argue that BJP could not repeat its Lok Sabha election performance this time when it had leads in 244 out of 288 Assembly segments in Maharashtra and BJP and Haryana Janhit Congress gaining in 58 and Congress in just eight Assembly seats in Haryana.
Congress, which was eyeing a record third term in Haryana on development plank, could win only three of six assembly seats where party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi held election rallies in favour of its nominees.
Sonia held election rallies at Meham and Tosham assembly seats while Rahul addressed meetings at Firozepur Jhirka, Rewari and Ganaur. Both Sonia and Rahul also addressed separate election rallies at Sirsa.
A spokesman for the party’s Goa unit Sunday called for an end to “dynasty politics”. In his Facebook post uploaded after the Haryana and Maharashtra results emerged, Durgadas Kamat said the poll outcome needed introspection within the party.
“End should be put to dynasty politics whether at the centre or states. Young people who perform and do not have political godfathers should be brought forward in the best interest of Indian politics,” Kamat said.
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Chorus to ‘bring Priyanka’ grows
New Delhi: As Congress continues with its losing streak – party workers on Sunday demanded that Priyanka Vadra join active politics. This is not the first time that such a demand has been made but it has repeatedly been snubbed by Priyanka, who had even issued a terse statement sometime back asking people to eschew from such speculation.
Waving posters, which read ‘’Priyanka Lao Congress Bachao’ (Bring Priyanka; Save Congress), party workers, a larger number of them women, appealed to party vice-president Rahul Gandhi to take the initiative to bring his sister into politics. Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) leader Jagdish Sharma, who led the group, said the successive defeat of the party in elections make it now all the more necessary to bring Priyanka into active politics of the party to better its prospects.
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