Rattled, Congress decides on course correction

• Mayawati faults Cong policies
• Pawar blames it on lack of strong leadership
• Chief Ministers targeted in blame game

New Delhi: Forgetting her 67th birthday celebrations, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday was closeted with senior leaders at her 10, Janpath residence, introspecting about the reasons for the party’s debacle in the Assembly elections. The leaders, who otherwise would have carried bouquets with them, were equipped with their own excuses for the poor showing at the hustings. Sonia Gandhi, who generally receives greetings from her Allies on this day, got brickbats from them, with her old-rival turned supporter Sharad Pawar blaming it all on the lack of strong leadership from the Congress to deal with the challenge posed by the BJP. Pawar tweeted that the Congress needs to introspect and that such leadership which lacks confidence gives rise to pseudo activists. Similarly, BSP supremo Mayawati blamed it on the Congress for its faulty policies saying that the AAP emergence was only due to the failure of the Congress at the Centre. The meeting, attended by Defence Minister A K Antony, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and AICC General Secretaries in-charge of the poll-bound states, besides Rahul Gandhi, felt that unless drastic steps were taken by them to go in for course-correction, they would be swept out of power in the Lok Sabha elections.

Indulging in the blamegame exercise, the party leaders complained that they did not get any support from the Chief Ministers of Delhi and Rajasthan, who were busy chalking out their programmes. Except for handling the responsibility of the campaigns of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, they did not lend any support to the party leaders. The Chief Ministers, on the other hand, have accused the party for not coming forward to support them. “I was left alone and the party was not there to support me,” complained Sheila Dikshit, not only to the media but also to the Congress High Command.

It is learnt that in the meeting, the party leaders found fault with the candidates’ selection and objected to the tickets being given to relatives of tainted Ministers. According to them, the party failed to get the support of the State administration in reaching out to the Aam Aadmi to publicise its flagship programmes. The State leaders were busy campaigning either for themselves or their kith and kin. It was not only the failure to connect with the common man but also the lack of coordination between the party organization and the Chief Minister’s Office that resulted in the total rout of the party in the elections.

It is learnt that the Congress High Command blamed the senior leaders for keeping her in the dark on the ground reality in the poll-bound States. The senior leaders failed to assess the growing disenchantment of the people against the 128-year-old party. All this while, Sonia Gandhi was given the impression that except for Rajasthan, the party was poised to win in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, while retaining power in Delhi.

Much to her surprise, the party faced total rout in all the States, forcing her to introspect along with her colleagues for the party’s decimation in the Hindi-heartland States, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.