Congress party vice-president Rahul Gandhi speaks to the media as his mother and chief of Congress, Sonia Gandhi, stands next to him during a news conference in New Delhi yesterday.
IANS/New Delhi
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son and party vice president Rahul Gandhi yesterday took responsibility for the party’s worst drubbing in the national election, but did not give credit to Narendra Modi for the BJP victory.
Making a short statement to the media - without entertaining any questions - at the party headquarters after it became clear that party would be relegated to around 50 seats, Sonia Gandhi said: “The Congress faced its rivals in the elections on the basis of policies and principles. Despite that we failed to get the majority we had thought we would get.
“We believe that in a democracy winning and losing is part of the game. This time the mandate is clearly against us. I accept the mandate with humility. I hope that the incoming government will not compromise with the interests of society.
“I want to congratulate the new government,” she said, but did not name the Bharatiya Janata Party or its leader Narendra Modi, who is set to become the next prime minister.
“The Congress will always fight and never compromise with the interests of people.
“I want to thank the people for their votes, and as president of the party I accept responsibility for its defeat,” she said.
Rahul Gandhi, who appeared to have a fixed smile on his face, said he wanted to congratulate the new government, but he too did not mention either the BJP or Modi.
“They have been given the mandate by the people, I want to wish them the best.
“The Congress has done pretty badly, and there is a lot to think about. As vice president I take the responsibility for the party’s defeat in the Lok Sabha polls,” Rahul said, almost a repeat of what he said after the party’s defeat in the November assembly election.
Mother and son then quickly left, declining to take any questions from the thronging media
Yesterday’s electoral humiliation risks consigning the Gandhi family to political oblivion, as Modi, who cast the Gandhis as elitist throughout his campaign, looks to sideline them for good.
By some measures, the family was in decline long before the parliamentary election; it has not won a majority in decades.
But the sheer scale of Modi’s victory this time around, dealing the Gandhis’ Congress party its worst election defeat ever, underlines how deeply that decay had spread.
WINNERS
Sonia Gandhi (Congress/Rae Bareli) - Congress president Sonia Gandhi won from Rae Bareli constituency, even as her party was decimated across Uttar Pradesh. According to election officials, Sonia Gandhi won from Rae Bareli, defeating Ajay Agrawal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 352,713 votes. The only other Congress candidate leading in the state was its vice president Rahul Gandhi in Amethi. Sonia Gandhi was first elected from Rae Bareli in 2004 and again in 2009. She was earlier the MP from Amethi.
Moon Moon Sen (Trinamool Congress/Bankura) - She had dazzled fans with her oomph and charisma three decades ago, sizzled the Lok Sabha poll battle in West Bengal’s Bankura with her simplicity and elegance and eventually stole the show on counting day yesterday by defeating nine-time MP and CPI-M nominee Basudeb Acharia. Actress Moon Moon Sen, dented the Left bastion in the tribal belt of Bankura, triumphing by 97,511 votes over Acharia, who had been winning from the seat without a break since 1980. Her daughters - Riya and Raima - are happy. Sen, daughter of Bengali screen legend Suchitra Sen, received 481,911 votes. The 71-year old Acharia, leader of his party in the outgoing Lok Sabha, managed only 384,400 votes.
Murli Manohar Joshi (BJP/Kanpur) - Veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi has won from the Kanpur Lok Sabha constituency defeating coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal. Joshi defeated Jaiswal, who was a three-time Congress MP from here, by 2,22,946 votes. In 2009, Joshi had won from Varanasi, from where Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi fought this time.
Mehbooba Mufti (PDP/Anantnag) - Mehbooba Mufti, president of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, yesterday won the Anantnag Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said. She defeated Mehboob Beg of the ruling National Conference who was seeking re-election from the parliamentary constituency.
Innocent (Left-backed Independent/ Chalakudy) - He may have made millions laugh with his antics on the silver screen, but yesterday it was Innocent’s turn to himself put on a smile. The actor-turned-political giant killer, who contested as a Left-backed Independent from the Chalakudy constituency in Kerala, beat Congress strongman P C Chacko by 13,884 votes, making it one of the biggest surprises in Kerala’s election history. Eyebrows were first raised and many were wonderstruck when the Communist Party of India-Marxist decided to field and back him as an Independent for the 2014 Lok Sabha election. But Innocent’s campaign turned for the better when crowds started coming in large numbers to see him and more importantly to hear him crack jokes. Losing candidate Chacko sportingly termed Innocent’s victory as a “colourful” one. “His personal charisma did the trick,” said Chacko.
LOSERS
Jaswant Singh (Independent/Barmer) – Expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh, who fought as an Independent candidate from Barmer constituency of Rajasthan, lost by a big margin against BJP’s Colonel Sonaram. The BJP candidate, who had joined the party recently from the Congress, defeated the former union minister by a margin of over 87,000 votes. Congress’s Harish Chaudhary came third. Sonaram secured over 4.87 lakh votes while Jaswant Singh was able to get over 4 lakh votes. Chaudhary got over 2.20 lakh votes. Jaswant Singh represented Darjeeling in the outgoing 15th Lok Sabha. Jaswant Singh wanted to contest from Barmer but the party fielded Sonaram instead. He filed nomination as an independent candidate and was expelled from the BJP for refusing to withdraw his candidature.
Meira Kumar (Congress/Sasaram) - Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar lost from the Sasaram Lok sabha constituency in Bihar by around 61,000 votes. The Congress candidate was defeated by Bharatiya Janata Party’s Chedi Paswan, a former minister who resigned from the Janata Dal-United and joined the BJP ahead of the polls. Meira Kumar won from the seat in 2004 and 2009.
Arun Jaitley (BJP/ Amritsar) - The first popular electoral outing for senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley started on a wrong note as he lost from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat to Congress candidate Amarinder Singh by nearly 90,000 votes. Amarinder, a former chief minister of Punjab, claimed that his victory was a clear verdict against the ruling Akali Dal-BJP combine in the state.
Ajit Singh (RLD/Baghpat) - Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh lost the Lok Sabha election yesterday from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh to BJP’s Satyapal Singh, a former Mumbai police commissioner. The 75-year-old Jat leader is the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) president and has never lost an election since 1999 from Baghpat. BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had campaigned in Baghpat. Satyapal Singh was once an officer on special duty to Ajit Singh, son of former prime minister Charan Singh.
Rakhi Sawant (Independent/Mumbai northwest-sixth) - Actor Rakhi Sawant yesterday stood at sixth position in her debut Lok Sabha election that she fought from Mumbai north-west parliamentary constituency. Sawant, who had formed her own party Rashtriya Aam Party (RAP), managed to secure 1,995 votes. She was contesting against Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar of Shiv Sena, Kamat Gurudas Vasant of Congress and Mayank Ramesh Gandhi of Aam Aadmi Party.