Rita Bahuguna sees sabotage in drubbing

LUCKNOW: Infighting in the Congress in the wake of its electoral debacle in Uttar Pradesh came out in the open on Thursday with PCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi saying there was a“lot of sabotage” at the local level in the party which is in a “crisis” at this moment.

Her remarks came after party MP from Sultanpur, Sanjay Singh complained that neither the party nor several of the candidates from Amethi wanted him to campaign during the polls.

His wife Ameeta Singh lost to an SP candidate in the district where only two of the five seats were won by the Congress. Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi had aggressively campaigned in the Congress pocket borough.

Joshi said local leaders acted “irresponsibly” and there was a “lot of sabotage” within the party at that level. “However, sabotage at the local level was not the only reason for the party’s defeat as it was in the case of many parties,” she said.

Congress, which had won 22 Assembly seats in 2007, managed to increase it marginally to 28 this time in the 403-member Assembly though it was hoping to improve its tally substantially.

Joshi said that she will go to Delhi on Friday and will meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in a day or two. “The whole party cadre is collectively responsible for the poor show in the state. It is wrong to indulge in a blame-game at this moment when the party is in crisis, and it was the duty of the MP to campaign,” Joshi told reporters here.

When asked about her resignation in the face of the poor performance of the Congress in the polls, she said that the matter will be discussed in the meeting. Earlier, Singh said” “It is unfortunate (that he did not campaign), but neither the party, nor the candidates wanted me to be there...So I didn’t go”.