‘Congress Could Have Won’: Inside Details Of What Angry Rahul Gandhi Said At Haryana Poll Debacle Review Meet

The meeting was brief, but Rahul Gandhi made his point. That the Haryana Congress leaders were selfish and they caused the loss.

Gandhi attended the review meeting called by party president Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence. Also present were observers namely Ajay Maken, Ashok Gehlot, Deepak Babaria and KC Venugopal.

Sources say Gandhi was largely quiet, but when his turn came to speak he made two strong points. One, that Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and Election Commission (EC) have much to answer and he wanted a detailed report on what went wrong in terms of counting.

But the second point left a loud silence in the room. When he said that it was an election which could have been won, but the local leaders were more interested in their own progress than that of the party. Gandhi got miffed when most kept blaming the EVMs. According to sources, he said he wanted the details, but the point, according to him, was that the leaders “fought amongst themselves and didn’t think of the party”. Saying this, Gandhi got up and walked away.

Sources say his attack was aimed at all, not just the Hoodas. For this purpose, a committee is being set up to assess the reason behind the loss.

It’s not the first time infighting has cost the Congress an election. Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are recent examples.

Not that Gandhi was unaware of it. This was the reason why based on ground reports, he stepped in to ensure that Kumari Selja and Hoodas worked together. But his attempt at making them hold hands was merely cosmetic as the two could never work together.

Gandhi’s next problem is Maharashtra. Here too, the Congress faces the problem of massive infighting and the party no longer can take a chance. The problem is, unlike in Haryana, in Maharashtra, the Congress is in a coalition with both the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena. They have already made it clear to the Congress that infighting could hurt them. It was important to get the house in order, but can Gandhi ensure that his anger at the Haryana review meeting make the warring leaders rethink and make up?

Sources say that to ensure it doesn’t happen again, the top Congress leadership is mulling action against some Haryana Congress leaders soon.

Meanwhile, among media reports and speculation, the Congress issued a statement: “The party has decided to depute a Technical Team to look into complaints and discrepancies noted by our candidates. Congress party will issue a detailed response based on the fact finding team’s report.”