Rahul's attempt to learn from election defeat

Meets defeated candidates 2-day discussion focuses on what went wrong and plans for 2014

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi on Thursday held one-to-one meetings with 153 party candidates to take stock of what went wrong in the recent Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. The Congress had won only 22 seats.

With “lack of an organisational structure at the grassroots” being cited across the board as the foremost reason, Gandhi has reportedly promised an overhaul of party functionaries from the state down to the poll booth level. He has urged them to start working towards the general elections of 2014, assuring them he would be very much back in UP.

The candidates who had lost but still managed to poll at least 20,000 votes each were lined up at the Congress ‘war room’ at 15, Gurudwara Rakabganj Road, since morning. Gandhi met them individually, with state party secretary Avinash Pandey.

Mincing no words, Sampat Pal, the feisty female leader from Manikpur, more popularly known as the leader of the ‘Gulabi gang’ a much-reported women’s empowerment group, said after stepping out from the meeting, “The total lack of support from the zila adhyakshya to the near-absent party workers has been the cause for our setback.” She managed to poll 20,000-odd votes which she says was on her own standing as a social activist. The party did little to chip in.

For Sunita Singh, candidate from Bakshi ka Talab near Lucknow, it was the Samajwadi Party (SP) poll promises which capitalised on the anti- Mayawati wave. “The SP’s promises of loan waiver, free laptops and tablets...we just could not match that.”

For Arvind Jaiswal who contested from Sagri in the Muslim-dominated Azamgarh region, it was the inherent weakness in the organisation — Sangathan kamzor hai — that was the root cause for the poor performance. Adding: “We, as a party, need to do our homework on the caste realities in our states.” Gandhi had urged the electorate to rise above caste politics.

The fact that this post poll assessment was being done in the absence of Digvijay Singh, in charge for UP (who is abroad), according to some sections in the party was indicative of the fact that Singh might not be in Gandhi’s good books.

In the second phase of the stock taking tomorrow, Gandhi will be meeting MLAs, district presidents and local leaders for their feedback.

But the problem, according to political observers, is with the party high command giving preference to outsiders over local workers.