| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Learn lessons from rout: Sonia |
| 2014-05-25 |
| [The Peninsula] Congress President Sonia Gandhi, re-elected chairperson of Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) yesterday, asked party leaders not to indulge in "public acrimony" over the party's worst Lok Sabha results for which appropriate lessons need to be learnt. Addressing a meeting of CPP, she acknowledged "there was widespread anger against us which we failed to adequately gauge" and asked party MPs to be "vigilant watchdogs" in their role in the opposition. Party leaders said Gandhi will soon decide the names of leaders of opposition in the two houses of parliament. Gandhi's remarks about the need for the partymen to stop bickering through media comes against the backdrop of a blame game in the party over its worst electoral defeat -- with its tally reduced to only 44 seats while it did not win a single seat in some states - with some leaders taking potshots at "Team Rahul Gandhi". Her son and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi led the Congress campaign in the election. In her speech, Sonia Gandhi said she was asked by the Congress Working Committee (CWC) to take all steps necessary to revamp the organization at all levels. "Your inputs, your experience and your assessment of our strengths and weaknesses, rather than public acrimony, will be critical to the exercise," she said. In an apparent message to party parliamentarians, including her own son who was also present at the meet, Sonia Gandhi said that being in the opposition means regular attendance, more hours inside the house and more study of subjects. "It means asking more questions, raising more issues, initiating more debates, always being the vigilant watchdog and defending principles of the Congress." |
| Posted by:Fred |