Congress leaders defended Rahul Gandhi, said 'collective responsibility' for state poll defeat
Punished by voters in four major states ahead of the national election just months away, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party on Sunday conceded that it was time for hard introspection and changes.
Top Congress sources hinted at a "major announcement" soon, revealing that the party was taking the defeat seriously.
But party leaders did their best to deflect questions that pitted Narendra Modi against Rahul Gandhi, attributing their poor showing to factors ranging from disunity to the inability to read the popular pulse.
"We have failed miserably. It is time for major reconstruction," admitted union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who led the party's failed campaign for return to power in Madhya Pradesh.
Congress leaders insisted that the BJP's victory had nothing to do with Narendra Modi, their prime ministerial candidate, who had campaigned exhaustively in the poll-bound states.
"The BJP chief ministers' performance worked for them. Modi has not had any impact in MP," said Mr Scindia, who had earlier called Mr Modi a "good omen" for his Congress party and dismissed him as a threat.
The Congress was also mauled in Rajasthan and in Delhi, where tax officer turned politician Arvind Kejriwal's debutant Aam Aadmi Party decimated the ruling party, reducing it to single numbers in the 70-seat assembly.
Young Congress leaders including Mr Scindia, Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora were among the first to comment that it was time to go back to the drawing board to try and recuperate before the Lok Sabha polls.
When it came to Rahul Gandhi, they all firmly stuck to 'collective responsibility."
"The Congress is not a one man show. It is a collective defeat and collective failure," said Congress minister Jayanthi Natarajan.
Mr Gandhi, 43, had been the party's star campaigner in these state polls and is widely seen as their candidate for the top post in 2014.
Union minister Sachin Pilot, who belongs to Rajasthan, said the party had time to pick itself up before the general election. "We win some, we lost some, all is not lost," he said.