The three Jenas of Congress in Odisha - OPCC president Jaydev Jena, his son Sangram Keshari and outgoing union minister Srikant Jena today accepted failure in the simulatneous Lok Sabha and assebly polls having tasted defeat at the hustings.
"I accept the defeat and own resposibility for Congress' bad performance in both assembly and Lok Sabha elections," Jaydev Jena said adding rise of BJP was one of the factors for his party's defeat.
"The young and new voters favoured the BJP instead of Congress. The poll percentage of BJP is certainly high this time. Therefore, BJD took advantage of BJP's rise," he added.
The three had been embroiled in controversies ahead of the polls and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh and many other senior leaders had quit Congress just before the elections accusing them of not giving tickets to genuine candidates.
While Srikanta Jena emerged third in Balasore Lok Sabha seat, Jayadev Jena could not make it to the Odisha assembly for the second time.
After accepting their defeat both of them claimed that they were 'not interested to fight the polls but remained in fray due to pressure from the high command'.
Sangram Keshari Jena who contested from Bhadrak Lok Sabha seat was trailing behind his nearest BJD rival Arjun Charan Sethi by 1.5 lakh votes when reports last came in. Sangram is also the president of the OPCC's youth wing.
