Congress has been unfairly targeted: Anand Sharma

Says party could not communicate good work to voters, will fight back

Attributing Congress drubbing in the recent assembly polls to lack of communication with people, Union Minister Anand Sharma feels the UPA government was unfairly targeted but expressed confidence that the party will "fight back" in the Lok Sabha elections next year.

"There is enough time for us. We will fight irrespective of these setbacks. We are determined," Sharma told PTI in an interview.

In the recent assembly elections in five states, Congress lost power in Delhi and Rajasthan. It had also performed badly in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

When asked as to what the Congress will do regain the lost ground, he said it would introspect on the results.

"To some extent I will say in all fairness that we have also been unfairly targeted. The positive word has been overlooked and the negative narrative had been allowed...

"We also introspect as to where we went wrong and my view is that we could not communicate with the people and our good work did not get connected when it comes to public perception," Sharma added.

The general elections are due in May 2014.

On whether BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is a threat to Congress in the 2014 general elections, he said: "No. He is not. Electoral politics is highly competitive. Congress is a 127-year old party and we can face it".

Modi is a leader of a political party, Sharma said, adding that he represents a "particular ideology which goes against our core values".

"He is the nominee of the RSS and the elections will be a clash of ideologies that of the RSS and the Congress which stands for democratic, liberal and secular India," he said.