Khatri asks Congmen to sweat it out,instead of burning effigies

In his one-hour long speech at the party office,Khatri stressed the need of hard work by partymen. He said the hard work done by Rahul Gandhi during the Assembly elections in UP will bear results in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections — just as the hard work done during the 2007 Assembly elections paid in the 2009 Lok Sabha election.

Calling the reports of Rahul’s failure in UP as “half-truth”,Khatri said,“Since the time I have been made the state president,everyone is asking me why Rahul failed to convert the crowds into votes in UP. The fact is that our vote share increased by 3 per cent in the Assembly elections this year. In fact,the vote share of only the Congress and the SP increased,whereas the BJP and BSP lost their share.”

“In any case,the leader cannot be blamed for failure to convert crowds into votes; we failed because we could not show our strength,” he added.

The new president said that the eight zonal presidents will have all powers in their zones,which will be allocated soon. They will have their offices in the zones and their first task would be reorganisation of the party.

The eight zonal presidents are Rashid Masood,P L Punia,Brijendra Singh,Raja Ram Pal,Jitin Prasada,Anugrah Narayan Singh,Vivek Singh,and RPN Singh.

He told workers that they would not be able to gather public support through mere dharnas,and demonstrations,or “by five people burning effigies in front of cameras”,but will have to raise genuine issues at the local level. “The party does not need your blood,it only needs you to sweat,” he said.

In an effort to remove the confusion over the party’s stance towards the Samajwadi Party,which is supporting the UPA government at the Centre,Khatri said: “You do not require any permission to raise genuine issues of concern and raise voice against injustice. We are supporting the West Bengal government but that does not restrict us from raising our voice against any injustice there.”

He reminded workers about the poor law and order situation in the state,the poor power scenario and inability of the government to maintain communal harmony.