With defeat staring the party in the face, Congress will hold a meeting of its spokespersons to fine tune the party's response on the results.
Assembly wise vote share of parties in the Lok Sabha polls had shown that Congress was leading only in 16 assembly seats in Maharashtra and Haryana. Though NCP was leading in more assembly seats than Congress, the latter views that Sharad Pawar's party will finish behind it at the fourth position this time.
A section in Congress also believes that over-emphasis on Maharashtra in Maharashtra and Jats in Haryana did the party in
as there were multiple claimants -- Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress -- for Maratha votes, the Jats were this time favourable disposed towards the INLD in Haryana.
This section believes that consolidation of non-Maratha and non-Jat votes in favour of BJP is a major reason behind its upswing in the two states. The party, however, feels that BJP may not be able to repeat its Lok Sabha performance in Vidarbha region.
In Haryana, the non-Jats including Dalits earlier used to vote mainly for Congress, a party leader said.
Party leaders feel that former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's controversial remarks against Congress and NCP leaders regarding corruption cases including Adarsh suggest a bid to find excuses for the near certain defeat of the party under his leadership in the state.
Chavan has since expressed regret over the matter but his detractors are not satisfied.
Senior Congress leaders in Delhi as also in Maharashtra including state campaign chief Narayan Rane have expressed displeasure over the remarks in an interview which appeared a day before the polling.
In an interview to an English daily, Chavan reportedly said, "Adarsh brought under the scanner Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde and Ashok Chavan -- the top Congress leadership in the state. If I had taken action against them, the party would have been decimated in Maharashtra.
"If I had sent them to jail, it would have hit the party organisation. The party would have split. Nobody articulated that openly then. Neither could I."
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}