Rahul Gandhi To States: “Why Didn’t You Make Adjustments After Loss To BJP”

New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi emphasized the need to accommodate regional parties in the battle against the BJP during a meeting of the senior leadership of the Congress on Thursday. The Congress had lost three significant states barely months before the national election.

Leaders of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), ranging from Mallikarjun Kharge, the party head, to Rahul Gandhi, emphasized the need for the opposition to come together in order to challenge Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP in the 2024 election.

The state elections served as a cautionary tale, particularly in Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress was unable to take advantage of the four-term anti-incumbency movement. The Congress only prevailed in Telangana and lost power in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

According to reports, Rahul Gandhi questioned state units’ readiness to work with minor parties to make reforms in an effort to challenge the BJP.

Despite not being present, Congress veteran Kamal Nath, who spearheaded the party’s disastrous campaign in Madhya Pradesh, faced criticism since he is not a member of the CWC. Several leaders criticized him for what they saw as his resolute rejection of suggestions or criticism and his dictatorial manner.

The party feels that the BJP’s collection of votes that smaller parties would have received was a major factor in the party’s defeats in the three states.

Rahul Gandhi claimed the Congress should have consented to seat-sharing with smaller parties, perhaps alluding to Madhya Pradesh, the state where Kamal Nath famously referred to “Akhilesh-Akhilesh” in order to deny ideas of an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav, the leader of the Samajwadi Party.

He said that such cannot be considered an intrusion. According to the MP, the Congress must make room for others and remember that every vote counts in the battle against the BJP.

According to reports, Rahul Gandhi also believed that the party had not conducted a good campaign in the three states and used Telangana as an example, where the Congress had achieved an incredible recovery from third place only a year before.

Rahul Gandhi is said to have remarked that the Congress did win all three in 2018 and that the BJP is not invincible in response to certain politicians trying to draw attention to the BJP’s organizational strength in all three states.

According to reports, Mallikarjun Kharge agreed, saying that it wasn’t a problem to give up four or five seats for the sake of the party as a whole.

Lessons must be learned from the state election verdict, and the Congress has to fight unitedly with alliance partners of the INDIA bloc to take on the BJP-led NDA. This was reportedly conveyed to the party by the Congress chief, who has been positioned as the prime ministerial face of the INDIA bloc.

“This meeting of the CWC expresses its firmest resolve to be fully prepared at the earliest to fight the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections both as a party in its own right and as a member of the INDIA group,” the resolution from the CWC added, reinforcing the point. It restates the Indian National Congress’s resolve to take all required action to turn the INDIA group into a potent force and bulwark against the BJP and its supporters.”