December 9, 2013
NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi on Sunday acknowledged that the drubbing had come as a shocker and identified price rise as the culprit, while Rahul Gandhi responded to the setback by vowing to aggressively follow the AAP model to bring the common man into the party and transform it.
December 9, 2013
NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi on Sunday acknowledged that the drubbing had come as a shocker and identified price rise as the culprit, while Rahul Gandhi responded to the setback by vowing to aggressively follow the AAP model to bring the common man into the party and transform it.
Talking to reporters after the defeat, Rahul said he would aggressively pursue his plan to transform Congress by engaging with the kind of people who have stayed aloof from the political process by learning from AAP's success. "The Aam Aadmi Party has involved a lot of people who the traditional parties did not involve. We are going to learn from that and we are going to do a better job in a way that you cannot imagine," he said.
Speaking afterwards, Arvind Kejriwal said he needed no certificate from Rahul.
"I think both the major parties (Congress and BJP) are thinking about politics in a traditional way, particularly in Delhi. I think we need to start about politics of empowerment. I have been saying this inside the party. I am now going to do it very aggressively in the Congress party," Rahul said, quelling speculation that the drubbing may render him risk-averse and keep him from upsetting the organizational applecart ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
He said he wanted to place the common man at the centre of his plan to change Congress. "What we need to do as a party is to move ahead of just talking about good governance and need to move to a paradigm when we are actually giving a serious place to the common man in our processes in our systems in our structures," he said.
Significantly, Rahul and Sonia indicated that the party was optimistic of victories in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, with the Congress president identifying price rise as the issue why their hopes did not come true. She said the Gehlot government in Rajasthan had run some good programmes while a great deal of work was done in Delhi too. Rahul also praised Sheila Dikshit for providing a good government.
The Congress president indicated that the party had remained confident of regaining Chhattisgarh even when TV channels showed BJP maintaining a steady lead over Congress. "I think we are still rather hopeful for Chhattisgarh, but we don't know just yet," she said minutes after Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh had given his thanksgiving speech.
Her response to whether the results reflected a national mood contradicted her acknowledgement about people not recognizing good schemes of Rajasthan and Delhi governments, and about price rise being a factor. She insisted that the elections were fought on state level issues.
Sonia also indulged queries about the party naming a PM candidate while talking to reporters. "People need not worry. At the opportune time, the name of our PM candidate will be announced," she said even as she stopped well short of spelling out whether the important call will be taken before the LS polls.
Congress is perceived to be reluctant to name a mascot for the 2014 polls with a view to thwarting Narendra Modi's plan to force a presidential-style contest.
Although it snubbed party general secretary Digvijaya Singh when he ruled out the possibility, there was never a clear indication that it would indeed project its own answer to Modi.
Sonia stressed on the importance of leadership issue while analyzing the results. Delinking the Lok Sabha polls from assembly contests, said, "General elections are quite different. People in state elections focus on the personality at the state level, at the leader who is likely to lead them or govern them at the state level. At the Centre, for a national election, people look at the person likely to guide them, govern them at the national level."
Courtesy: TNN
