A poor show in polls not reflection on Rahul's leadership:Nath

With exit polls painting a grim prospect for Congress, Union minister Kamal Nath today rejected suggestions that a likely poor show in the elections will be a reflection on Rahul Gandhi's leadership, saying he was never part of the UPA government.

He said the Manmohan Singh-led government was not able to convey to the people about its programmes and all the good work it was doing.

"Election results are a reflection on what people's perception of the government functioning was....To dismiss them (good work) and say we did nothing in 10 years is wrong. Rahul Gandhi was never part of the government," he said in defence of the party's Vice President who led the Congress campaign.

BJP has taken a dig at Congress over the issue, saying it will blame Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and others but not Rahul and his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi if it fares poorly in the polls.

"The mantra in Congress is to blame others in case of something bad while giving all credit to Congress President and Vice President. Therefore, the PM will be blamed and others too. There will be talk about collective responsibility," party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said today.

Nath said they were "neither optimistic nor pessimistic" about results. "We are being realistic," he said.

Downplaying the exit poll predictions, he recalled that in 2004 and 2009 they were far off the mark and failed to foresee the swing in favour of Congress, and said it would be better to wait for the actual outcome on May 16.