A meeting of the Congress high command — party president Mallikarjun Kharge and senior leader Rahul Gandhi — on Saturday to review the party’s poor performance in the Rajasthan Assembly elections saw several leaders blame the decision to repeat most of the sitting MLAs as the primary reason for the defeat in the state. While nobody directly criticised outgoing CM Ashok Gehlot at the meeting, party leaders have been saying it was he who insisted on fielding MLAs again. Sources said internal party surveys had shown as many as 50 MLAs faced huge anti-incumbency, but the party did not deny them tickets fearing a rebellion. Of the 25 ministers in the Gehlot government who contested again, 18 lost. Five of the six advisers to Gehlot too bit the dust. Several leaders said those sitting MLAs, who were seen as facing voter dissatisfaction in surveys, should have been replaced, and wondered why it didn’t happen. Some leaders argued the campaign was focused on one person. Gehlot, meanwhile, insisted that the party had waged a good campaign, unlike in the past. Rahul, sources said, disagreed, pointing out that campaign does not just mean putting up hoardings and posters and holding rallies. He also drew a parallel between the party’s campaign in Rajasthan and Telangana. AICC in-charge for Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said the shortcomings which led to the defeat would be identified and addressed. “Our vote share was a little less than the BJP and it also improved a little bit from the last time. Many of our candidates lost by a narrow margin and we told senior leaders we would start preparing for the Parliamentary elections from today itself. We assured the leadership we would fight the BJP unitedly in the Lok Sabha polls. The Congress unitedly fought Rajasthan elections,” Randhawa said after the meeting. On whether he offered to resign as Rajasthan in-charge, he said, “I told the leadership I was there only till elections as I have to concentrate on Punjab also.” “How we were left behind (in Rajasthan), we will look into it,” he said. The Congress high command had a similar introspection Friday with MP and Chhattisgarh leaders, who listed out complacency, lack of coordination and unity, resources, failure to counter the BJP campaign and the inability to take the Congress promises to people as reasons for the defeat.
