Mumbai: After its massive defeat in Lok Sabha polls in the state, Maharashtra Congress today expressed total confidence in All India Congress Committee (AICC) leadership and plans to reach out to its grass root cadre ahead of upcoming assembly elections.
At a meeting of Congress office bearers, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and state unit Congress chief Manikrao Thakre urged the party workers to sink their differences and work for the assembly elections.
Chavan indicated that the Model Code of Conduct for assembly elections is likely to be enforced by the end of August.
"We need to unitedly face the challenge and fight the assembly polls positively," both the leaders said.
A resolution was adopted unanimously resolving to face future political challenges with full strength and in an organised manner, without straying from the party`s core principles and policies.
Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) president Manikrao Thakre also told reporters here today that three-day Lok Sabha constituency wise meetings have been convened from May 21 to take stock of the situation after the unprecedented defeat.
"Candidates, MLAs, district unit chiefs and office bearers will attend the meeting," he said.
"After getting feedback from workers, we will improve upon our mistakes and work harder to win back the confidence of the people," Thakre said.
Meanwhile, Manikrao Thakre said that both he and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan have owned up moral responsibility for the debacle.
"The issue will not be resolved with one or two resignations. We will wait for directives from the AICC as the defeat is nationwide and not only in Maharashtra," he said.
Thakre said that the three-day meetings from May 21 would focus on 27 seats which the Congress contested.
Thereafter, deliberations would be held with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) since the Congress would also contest assembly segments in Lok Sabha seats in the NCP quota.
He said that a meeting of Congress and NCP leaders is likely to be held tomorrow.
Incidentally, the Congress won only two seats and the NCP won only four seats in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls.
"We committed mistakes which is why voters rejected us. We will analyse what went wrong and take corrective measures," Thakre said.
Thakre said that in the Risod assembly by-election, the Congress won by more than 10,000 votes, while in the Lok Sabha election, it fared poorly from the segment which falls in the Vidarbha region.
