The Congress is not ‘defeatist’: Digvijaya Singh

In the case of Assam, where the BJP along with its allies managed to secure 87 seats, Singh said that it was not purely a people’s mandate. He said that BJP had performed miserably in the other five states. “As far as Assam result was concerned we had 15-years of anti-incumbency and also one of our important leaders switched to BJP at the last moment. Our allies who were in government with us for 10 years moved out,” he said, highlighting reasons for the party’s loss . He also added that BJP had polarised votes between the communities in Assam for securing its victory. As per the poll results declared on Thursday, INC had managed to bag only 25 seats in Assam.

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According to Singh, BJP has been engineering defections. He says that they tried to do it in Arunachal Pradesh and in Uttarakhand also. “Only if the judiciary had been has forthright as it was in Uttrakhand, in Arunachal Pradesh also the government would have been saved. But due to the delay in the judicial pronouncement, the people who defected no action could be taken against them,” he said.

Responding to BJP’s Congress-Mukt-Bharat propaganda, Singh said that though it was a matter of concern. However , he said that Congress had always bounced back. “We were reduced to two states at one point, but we will fight back. We are not ‘defeatist’, we will work hard with people and win back their confidence once again,”

On being asked if the poll result were connected over the news of Rahul Gandhi taking over as the party president of INC, Digvijay quickly dismissed the report, stating that the two were not related. Singh, however, added that the party workers have been looking forward to Priyanka Gandhi’s active involvement in the party.

Following the verdict, Singh said that the Congress would accept the mandate and serve the people in the opposition.