Congress analysing Haryana assembly poll loss, booth wise report sought: Kharge

PTI, Kalaburagi (Karnataka): Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said the party was analysing the Haryana Assembly poll results, and has sought a booth wise report to determine what led to the defeat. He said his party is paying special attention to ascertain what led to Haryana loss, keeping forthcoming elections in mind, but ruled out the possibility of this result having any impact on the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly election. “We are doing the analysis, along with Rahul Gandhi and other leaders I have held a meeting a couple of days ago to analyse and we are getting booth wise reports. How much fault lies with our workers, what is the role of our leaders and what happened, on all that we are getting report booth wise, based on it we will analyse and decide on further course of action,” Kharge said.

Speaking to reporters here, the Congress leader said the party is paying special attention to it as the entire country was of the opinion that Congress will win in Haryana, and no one including journalists or news channels said the party is going to lose and BJP will win. “What happened, we are analysing it, after that we will decide on what to do. We will have to face several elections in the days ahead, we will certainly look into it, keeping it (upcoming elections) in mind,” he added. The BJP won a third straight term in Haryana, dashing the hopes of the Congress.

Asked whether the Haryana results will have an impact on upcoming Maharashtra polls, the Congress chief said, “one election result will not have an impact on election in another state, but the question is why the results were like this, despite people in our favor?” “We could have understood if the opinion was 50:50, with one half saying results will be in our favour and the other half saying otherwise, but despite the entire country including media, channels, print media, leaders and public opinion in our favour, what was the reason behind this result?We have to find it,” he said.