The outcome of the results of elections to Assemblies in five States has come as a disappointment to the Congress leaders in the State as they had hoped that a good performance in Uttar Pradesh would have boosted the morale of the cadres here.
Some of them drew comparisons between the performance of AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav. “The performance of Mr. Yadav is there for all to see. He had campaigned as aggressively as Mr. Gandhi, but the people seemed to have kept their faith in the Samajwadi Party leadership. Our biggest disappointment is the Congress party's dismal show in the Assembly segments of Rae Bareilly and Amethi Lok Sabha constituencies,” the Minister remarked.
Leaders feel that cadres would find it difficult to justify their projection of Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial candidate in 2014 elections. They were of the opinion that Mr. Gandhi should not have been confined alone to UP. But a section of the leadership feels that the results were only a temporary setback.
Some leaders expressed the view that the UP results could have an impact on the Telangana statehood issue as the BSP and BJP, both strong votaries of smaller States, were routed. This might force the Telangana leaders to lie low till a thorough post-mortem is made of the election results in the five States. But the Congress MPs from Telangana maintain that they would step up their activity after the by-election to seven Assembly seats.
Reacting to the results, APCC president Botcha Satyanarayana said: “Mr. Rahul Gandhi has given the much needed confidence to party cadres in Uttar Pradesh.” Minister for Panchayat Raj K. Jana Reddy did not share the optimism when he said the party had to learn lessons from the results. “We tried our best to publicise the party policies and activities, but the people have not accepted them.”
Former Minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy went a step further when he remarked that the elections had proved that charisma and the strategy of bringing national level leaders do not always yield results.
