Express News Service
NEW DELHI: At a time when the Congress is struggling to find allies in the opposition camp, Rahul Gandhi on Monday raised the hackles of state satraps as he said only a national party could fight the BJP/RSS, not the regional parties, and also questioned the ideological commitment of the latter.
While several state leaders hit back at the Congress MP, the electoral performance of the grand old party shows it last won an assembly election in 2018 and has lost 19 since then, many to the regional players. These parties are occupying the space of a weakened Congress in state after state, the latest example being the AAP in Punjab.
Of the eight states that went to polls in 2018, the Congress won three — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It was one of the party’s best performances since the 2014 Lok Sabha debacle. Since then, however, the party’s poll graph has been going downhill. It has only managed to become a junior partner in the governments in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.
Taking umbrage to Rahul’s comments, RJD’s Manoj Jha said had Rahul been mindful of the outcome of poll fights against the BJP, he would have realised the ideological and electoral commitment that is brought by such regional outfits”.