New Delhi: The Congress will review the Gujarat poll loss and take corrective steps to address the shortcomings in the western state, but will keep its ideological fight with the BJP, party president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Thursday. “We accept defeat. In a democracy, a particular victory or loss is not permanent. We will review the results and take steps to address our shortcomings. But we are not going to give up our ideological fight. We will keep fighting,” Kharge said hours after the party registered its worst poll defeat in Gujarat.
Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are the two Assembly polls that took place under the presidency of Kharge, who had taken charge on October 26. Ahead of the November 12 polls in Himachal and December 1 and December 5 polls in Gujarat, Kharge campaigned in both states where he slammed the BJP led by PM Modi. The Gujarat elections were crucial for the grand old party, which had put in huge resources and energy to wrest power from the BJP, which has been in government over the past 27 years, but failed to even keep its 2017 tally of 77 out of 182 seats. In contrast, the BJP, which benefited immensely from the popularity of PM Modi in his home state, improved its tally significantly in Gujarat despite a huge anti-incumbency and a three-sided contest with the entry of AAP for the first time.
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Though the AAP had tried to get a foothold in Himachal also, the party gave up its campaign in the hill state after a lukewarm response from the voters. This actually helped the Congress to step up in Himachal and put up a tough challenge for the BJP government, which had little to showcase except the leadership of PM Modi.
“I am very happy with the win in Himachal Pradesh. I congratulate and thank the voters of Himachal Pradesh. I also congratulate the AICC in-charge, AICC secretaries and senior state leaders for the win,” Kharge said over the Himachal results. The Congress president said that the AICC observers were reaching Shimla on Thursday and would convene a meeting of newly elected MLAs to decide on the Chief Ministerial face before taking an appointment with the Governor to stake a claim for the formation of the government.
However, the Congress president also noted that despite the Himachal win, the grand old party had a long way to go and was preparing to bring about suitable changes in the party structure. “We have a long way to go. We will come back to you soon on the future roadmap,” he said. According to sources, heads have started to roll in the party over the Gujarat poll debacle with AICC general secretary in-charge Raghu Sharma submitting his resignation to Kharge hours after the results. Sharma had led a team of several AICC secretaries and state leaders, who had done the extensive groundwork to ensure a party win in Gujarat, but the results came as a shocker for the grand old party.
