Cong MPs blame debacle on babalog disconnect

Sultanpur MP Sanjay Singh,whose wife Ameeta lost from Amethi,said the “party and the people (leaders)” did not want him to campaign. “Nobody asked me to campaign. It was for the state party organisation to decide who would campaign. I will be meeting the Congress president and Rahul Gandhi to apprise them of the reasons (for the party’s performance),” he said.

Questioning the attempt to paint the old guards as villains,another party MP whose relative lost said: “The fact is that babalog and kunwar sahebs who are close to Rahulji do not understand grassroots politics. A management degree does not teach you politics and you have to learn it by going to the people.”

The MP also questioned all the talk of bringing youth into politics.

“In UP,they did come out to vote in large numbers,but they came as Thakur youth and Ansari youth and Brahmin youth. Youth want job opportunities. What is the career you offer them in politics? You cannot put these points across to Rahulji because you are not given access.”

The blame on organisational weakness was unfair,

said another Congress MP. “Rahul had done roadshows in 2007 too. These were the same reasons cited by the party after our dismal show in 2007. If

the state organisation is not effective,top leadership of the party is responsible for it. How come the same organisation was so effective in the 2009 Lok Sabha election?” said another Congress MP.

What went against the party was raking up of Batla encounter and minority sub-quota within the OBC quota,say party leaders,“alienating the Hindus,especially the OBCs”.

“Then,you had these remarks about the possibility of governor’s rule in the middle of election. People got very angry with it. You also don’t expect people to believe you when you (Salman Khurshid) tell them about Sonia Gandhi getting tears in her eyes over the Batla case,” said another MP.

Kheri MP Zafar Ali Naqvi said there was a need to project a Muslim face who was “not hi-fi” and with whom people could identify. “If we are looking at 2014,we need a minority face who is secular and has a clean image to be the state Congress chief and also in the Union Cabinet,” he told The Indian Express.