05-19-2007, 01:51 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Cong candidates hint at inside sabotage </b>
Pioneer.com
Nidhi Sharma | New Delhi
Congress president Sonia and her son Rahul Gandhi might be blaming the party organisation for the debacle in Uttar Pradesh Assemebly election, but the party candidates feel it was inside sabotage.
<b>About 150 Congress candidates, who had got 10,000-20,000 votes in the State Assembly election, met the party president for a brain storming session on Friday. Sources said that around 70 candidates had polled 20,000 votes and above</b>. These candidates were called as a part of Congress' introspection exercise on UP Assembly elections. The candidates first met Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Salman Khurshid on Friday morning. After this, Sonia Gandhi, heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi and Khurshid held a meeting with all candidates.
Sources said that the candidates recounted their personal experiences about the elections and minced no words in blaming the party's MPs for the poor performance. A source said: "<b>When asked about their experiences, specifically on the party organisation in the State, the candidates said clearly that Congress' own members of Parliament worked against the candidate fielded by the party."</b>
The candidates gave details to the party president and said that MPs were not happy with the party's ticket distribution in the State. "This is why MPs in some areas even helped the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates. In today's interaction, these candidates revealed that it was an internal sabotage," the source said.
Sonia held these interactions with candidates to gauge the reasons for the party's poor performance in the UP elections. <b>Though the Congress had never claimed it would sweep the polls, the party had maintained that it would act as "kingmaker". </b>However, BSP chief Mayawati deprived the Congress even this. Leave alone improving the seat tally, <b>the party could not even better its vote share. The Congress tally went down from 25 to 22 and the vote share was a shade worse from the earlier 9 per cent to 8.56 per cent</b>.
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Pioneer.com
Nidhi Sharma | New Delhi
Congress president Sonia and her son Rahul Gandhi might be blaming the party organisation for the debacle in Uttar Pradesh Assemebly election, but the party candidates feel it was inside sabotage.
<b>About 150 Congress candidates, who had got 10,000-20,000 votes in the State Assembly election, met the party president for a brain storming session on Friday. Sources said that around 70 candidates had polled 20,000 votes and above</b>. These candidates were called as a part of Congress' introspection exercise on UP Assembly elections. The candidates first met Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee (UPCC) president Salman Khurshid on Friday morning. After this, Sonia Gandhi, heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi and Khurshid held a meeting with all candidates.
Sources said that the candidates recounted their personal experiences about the elections and minced no words in blaming the party's MPs for the poor performance. A source said: "<b>When asked about their experiences, specifically on the party organisation in the State, the candidates said clearly that Congress' own members of Parliament worked against the candidate fielded by the party."</b>
The candidates gave details to the party president and said that MPs were not happy with the party's ticket distribution in the State. "This is why MPs in some areas even helped the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) or the Samajwadi Party (SP) candidates. In today's interaction, these candidates revealed that it was an internal sabotage," the source said.
Sonia held these interactions with candidates to gauge the reasons for the party's poor performance in the UP elections. <b>Though the Congress had never claimed it would sweep the polls, the party had maintained that it would act as "kingmaker". </b>However, BSP chief Mayawati deprived the Congress even this. Leave alone improving the seat tally, <b>the party could not even better its vote share. The Congress tally went down from 25 to 22 and the vote share was a shade worse from the earlier 9 per cent to 8.56 per cent</b>.
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