Congress holds review meeting on Rajasthan poll defeat

Congress had to bite the dust in the November 25 Rajasthan polls held to elect 199 of the 200 state legislative assembly members. BJP won 115 seats, while the incumbent Congress could manage only 70 seats.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge convened the review meeting at AICC headquarters in Delhi where several senior leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot were present.

After the meeting, Rajasthan Congress in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa told media persons that today senior Congress leaders had an in-depth discussion on the Assembly election results of Rajasthan.

“We will identify our shortcomings and work on them and will fight the upcoming Lok Sabha election unitedly,” he said.

Randhawa said that in many seats, Congress candidates lost by very low margins.

Hailing the workers, he said Congress workers did hard work during the election.

“Senior Congress leaders said that it is time for us to start our preparation for upcoming Lok Sabha election,” he added.

Boosting the prospects of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 general elections, the BJP won a huge victory, clinching three of the four states, for which Assembly elections were held in the last week of November.

Apart from Rajasthan, Congress also lost in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. While Congress’s loss in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan is being attributed to anti-incumbency factors, in Madhya Pradesh, where BJP was in power, managed a decisive victory, proving wrong the predictions of its defeat.

The assembly polls in these states were touted as a semi-final contest ahead of the general elections in less than six months.

In Telangana, Congress ousted the ruling BRS led by K Chandrasekhar Rao aka KCR.

Following its victory in two southern states, earlier in Karnataka and now in Telangana, several Congress leaders tried to point out a North-South divide among voters. BJP has called this an attempt to divide the country on North-South lines, a line it alleged Congress has taken after failing to divide the country on caste lines.

The results of the assembly elections held in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Telangana were declared on December 3.

(With UNI inputs)