I should not be blamed alone for Congress` poll debacle: Madhusudan Mistry

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Days after Congress` worst ever performance in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, party general secretary and prominent Dalit leader Madhusudan Mistry, who was pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party`s PM-designate Narendra Modi, shrugged-off his role, calling it as a collective responsibility of leaders of the grand old party. “It is not right to blame me alone for the party`s electoral performance. It was a collective responsibility. It will be discussed within the party,” Mistry said to an English news channel on Saturday. Unlike other Congress leaders who are busy owning the responsibility of party`s poor show in General elections 2014, Mistry is the odd one out of them who seems to disagree with it. As the blame-game continued in the party over its worst poll drubbing, many Congress leaders have backed party vice president Rahul Gandhi calling him the `fittest` leader for every responsibility, amid a lookout for its leader in the Lok Sabha. On Congress leader Milind Deora`s remarks about the reasons for party`s failure in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls, party general secretary Shakeel Ahmed said, "There is no attack on Rahul Gandhi by any Congress leader. It is your imagination. It is not an attack on him." Deora had said that Rahul Gandhi`s advisers did not have their "ears to the ground" and those with "no electoral experience were calling the shots", and added that "the people who take the advice also have to bear responsibility". Ahmed added that the Congress president as well as its vice president have publicly accepted their responsibility. Amidst a growing clamour in favour of Priyanka Gandhi which grew stronger within the Congress party with at least two leaders saying she is a `big fighter` and has the `natural ability` to connect with people, Sonia Gandhi was today re-elected leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party. This was the first meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) after the debacle in the Lok Sabha election where the party could win only 44 seats. A resolution passed at the meeting said the CPP expressed the hope that secular forces in parliament will coordinate their strategies. The CPP assured like-minded parties that it will extend its cooperation in this regard. The resolution said the Congress resolves to fight with all force any attempt to abandon or subvert constitutional principles or any attempt to depart from or dilute policies and legislations introduced in the last decade. It noted with great concern the scale of the party`s defeat and resolved to demonstrate in no uncertain terms its inner strengths. Soon after the announcement was made, former Law Minister Veerappa Moily said that Rahul should have been made the leader of the opposition. Party`s national spokesperson AM Singhvi told ANI, “The main agenda of the CPP meet was to elect the new leader of Congress Parliamentary Party for which everyone chose Sonia Gandhi unanimously.”