Cong leader Faleiro accepts party going through tough times

Congress general secretary Luizinho Faleiro has accepted that his party was going through "difficult times" and said an introspection was underway to find out and work on the grand old party's strength and weaknesses.

Calling for structural changes in the Congress, Faleiro, who is the incharge of Northeast, said the party would come up with an action plan for the restructuring programme in about 6,000 villages of Meghalaya over next 15 days or a month.

"The Congress is going through difficult times, we have to accept and appreciate it. We are doing our introspection to find out and work on our strengths and weaknesses," Faleiro said on Friday during a meeting with the Meghalaya Congress leaders, party MLAs and other functionaries here.

"However, more than the Congress party, it is the nation which is going through disturbing times," he said.

The eight Northeastern states has a total of 25 Lok Sabha seats. Congress drew blank in six of them. It has won only three of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam and one in Meghalaya.

The BJP, meanwhile, won 13 seats in the region on their own and rest eight was bagged by regional parties, which are its allies in NEDA (North East Democratic Alliance).

Faleiro maintained that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre was not sensitive to the needs of the indigenous communities in the Northeast. He stressed that the Northeast regional parties should realise that National Democratic Alliance government was working against their interests.

"The BJP-led NDA government has withdrawn special category status to the Northeast states. It was now trying to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill here," the senior Congress leader said. "It is important to realise whether being a member of the NEDA would be beneficial for the region in the long-run."