Amethi: After the drubbing in the assembly elections, there is now more bad news for the Congress. The party's MP from Sultanpur, Sanjay Singh and his wife Ameeta, who was the Congress' candidate for the Amethi seat in the UP assembly elections have spoken out against the party.
"Neither the party, nor the candidates wanted me to campaign. So I didn't go. The candidates thought that me being a member of Parliament won't help, that they themselves were enough," said Mr Sanjay Singh.
I was asked about the candidates but I knew they won't win in Sultanpur, he added.
When asked whether the Gandhi family charisma has been a factor at all, Mrs Singh said, "I believe that coming from the era of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, then Mrs Gandhi, followed by Rajiv Gandhi and then Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and now Rahul Gandhi, times are changing. And if we talk about this legacy, this family then Mulayam Singh also has a legacy. But his daughter-in-law lost the election two years back. And in his own hometown."
The Congress chief fielded questions about the party's poor showing in the family bastion of Amethi-Rae Bareli calmly. She admitted that the Congress' choice of candidates was wrong, pointing out that "In Amethi, the newcomer who we fielded won." That was one of only two seats that the Congress could win from the 10 on offer. Her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had camped in this area for more than a month and campaigned extensively door-to-door. She had also promised her mother publicly that she would deliver all 10 seats.
The Congress could add only six seats to its earlier tally of 22 in UP; it lost a sitter in Punjab; lost Goa comprehensively, and fell short of a majority, though it has now staked claim, in Uttarakhand. Mrs Gandhi pointed out that the party had been re-elected in Manipur.
The Congress is busy assessing damage from its disastrous showing in what was pegged as a mini-general election. The Congress president made a rare appearance yesterday to explain what went wrong and had all her answers ready. In UP, she said, a weak organisation and a poor choice of candidates had done her party in. Wrong candidates meant more rebels, she said. She also said very candidly, with a laugh, that her party's problem was not a lack of leadership, but that of "too many leaders." Spoiling the broth?
Mrs Gandhi also made it clear that the UPA government that her party leads at the Centre is secure and that there will be no change of Prime Minister till 2014. "The question does not arise," she said, also refusing to answer who the Congress' candidate for PM will be in the next General Elections. "We are in 2012 and 2014 is a long way off," she said.
The mother did not offer extensive explanations for her son Rahul Gandhi's failure to convert his high-profile, high-energy efforts in UP into seats for the party. Stating that she "humbly accepted the people's verdict," Mrs Gandhi said, "In UP the people were unhappy with the BSP and the alternative for them was the Samajwadi Party." With the same candour she accepted, "In Goa, the people were unhappy with us."
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