The NCP on Thursday said that ‘failure’ on the part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to ‘connect’ with the people and excessive use of English by several of Congress Ministers and leaders to rebut the serious allegations made by the BJP against the UPA Government contributed majorly to the coalition’s debacle in the lok Sabha polls.
At a review of the reasons for the rout of the UPA in the polls, senior NCP leaders — who met at Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s official residence ‘Devgiri’ — laid the blame largely at the Congress’ door, when they blamed the Prime Minister and Gandhi for their failure to project effectively its successes on various development fronts before the people. They also said the issues like the failure of the state government to tackle issues like the price rise and inflation also contributed to the UPA’s defeat in the polls.
Talking to mediapersons after the party’s review meeting, NCP spokesperson Nawab Mallik said: “The UPA Government failed to convey to people its various people-friendly policy initiatives taken in national interest despite economic recession world over. The hikes in prices of petrol, diesel and domestic gas cylinders also went against the UPA. The excessive use of English — instead of Hindi — by Congress leaders to rebut serious allegations made by the BJP leaders against the UPA Government proved to be costly for the UPA”.
In his elaboration, Malik said, “On one hand, BJP leaders like Arun Jaitely and Sushma Swaraj could reach out to maximum people by speaking aggressively in Hindi against the Government’s policies. On the other, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister P Chidambaram failed to cut ice with people by preferring to respond to the BJP leaders’ allegations in English.”
He also admitted that the lok Sabha poll outcome had come as a shock for both the Democratic Front partners. Together we could win only six seats — NCP four and Congress two, which means we lost 42 of the total 48 seats in Maharashtra. We have decided to contest the Maharashtra legislative Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress, and we have started preparations,” Malik said.
Thursday’s meeting — at which the party’s senior leaders including Praful Patel, Govindrao Adik, Arun Gujarati and Babanrao Pachpute were present — was a precursor to a comprehensive review meeting convened by NCP president at YB Chavan Centre in south Mumbai on Friday.
At Friday's meeting, the NCP would chalk out its strategy for the State Assembly polls due to be held in October this year.
All ministers in the Democratic Front government, MPs, MlAs, MlCs, candidates who were defeated in the lok Sabha elections, office-bearers, district presidents, mayors, Zill Parishad and Panchayat Samiti presidents, would be present at the meeting.
Pawar and other senior leaders would be addressing the session to be held at the Y B Chavan Centre at the Nariman Point here. “At Friday's meeting there would be a comprehensive review of lok Sabha poll outcome. We will also purt in place our strategy for the State Assembly polls,” Malik said.