After Congress' electoral drubbing, Rahul Gandhi calls for structural changes in party

New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accepted his party's defeat in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Elections and called for structural changes within the party.

Speaking to the press, “We are in the opposition, you have ups and downs and we had a little down in UP, we accept it,” Rahul said adding, “We have an ideological fight with the BJP and we will continue to fight them.”

Putting up a brave face, the Congress vice president asserted, “Out of the five states, which went to polls, BJP won two, we won three. In two of the states we won, but the democracy was being undermined by the BJP using financial power.”

The BJP registered a stunning victory in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, trampling a fragmented opposition that had hoped the demonetisation exercise would have chipped away at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity.

The ruling Congress finished as the single-largest party, but three short of a majority in a hung Manipur assembly on Saturday, with the BJP, for the first time, emerging the second largest outfit in the northeastern state where smaller parties and an independent lawmaker now held the key to government formation.

The Congress returned to power in Punjab with the party winning 77 seats in the 117 member state assembly.