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To demands by some party workers that Priyanka take up the leadership of the party, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said she would continue to restrict her involvement in active politics only to Rae Bareli and Amethi Lok Sabha constituencies.”Thousands of Congress workers have reposed their collective faith in Rahul. Some individuals may have some doubt. As far as Congressmen are concerned, they have no doubt about his ability...,” Surjewala said.
about his ability. They see the future of Congress in the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. I think we should honour the feeling of crores of workers," Surjewala said.
Dozens of party workers had collected outside the Congress headquarters at Akbar Road demanding that Priyanka replace her brother. Surjewala said the Congress will go for
"course correction" and build "new leadership" to arrest its sliding vote base in a number of states.
Senior Congress leaders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the party has no future without the Gandhi family leading it and there was no question of dumping Rahul. The choice
of Rahul is a decision taken by all the members of the Gandhi family and attempts to create a Rahul versus Priyanka tussle is being made by some in the party to secure their turf.
Much before the results were out on Sunday, a well-planned strategy was put in place to insulate Rahul and dismiss views that he be held accountable for the defeat. "To segregate and assign responsibility in this way is neither practical nor possible," Surjewala said.
"Victory and defeat keep coming when you are in politics," he said, adding that if victories
and defeats should be dissected, it will be seen that the party has bettered its performance in both the states from what it was in the Lok Sabha polls.
Indeed, the Congress has improved its vote share marginally in the both the states.
"We ruled Maharashtra for 15 years in a row, which is something uncommon, while we were in
power in Haryana for 10 years. We were continuously in power in these states, while BJP came and went out power in some states," he said.
On All-India Congress Committee revamp, he said a meeting of the party's apex decision making body, Congress Working Committee, had, after Lok Sabha poll results, authorised Sonia to do it.
A party leader said,"When you are faced with such a scenario, change is natural. The
party leadership cannot be oblivious to the realities in states." There is a view in the party that the traditional vote base of the party among OBCs (other backward classes) and Dalits in Haryana shifted en bloc to the BJP this time, while it could not get a bigger pie of Jat votes, which went substantially to the Indian National Lok Dal.
