Rahul Gandhi not to be blamed if UP results not favourable: Cong

Rahul Gandhi is not to be blamed if Congress does not perform well in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections whose results will be out on Tuesday, party leaders said on Saturday.

"A leader creates an atmosphere. To convert that atmosphere into votes and seats is the responsibility of candidates and the organisation," AICC general secretary in-charge for Uttar Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, told reporters here.

He was replying to questions on his yesterday's statement that he and PCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, and not Rahul, should be held responsible if election results in UP are not in favour of the party.

Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi said those leaders who are in charge of the state affairs are responsible for the good or bad performance of a political party in elections.

"Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are our national leaders. They go to all states to help the party. Rahul is not attached with any particular state. He is our national leader and goes to every state to help the party improve its performance. It's basically the leaders who are in charge of the state affairs, who are responsible for election results," Alvi said.

Both Singh and Alvi, however, dismissed exit polls, some of which are placing Congress in the fourth position in UP.

Singh said he remains firm on his earlier statements that Congress will have "miraculous" results in UP, while Alvi said the party has faith in people and is not bothered about what exit polls are saying. "We will accept whatever is the people's verdict," he said.

Alvi refused to answer questions on possibilities of post-poll alliance with Samajwadi Party dubbing such contentions as "hypothetical".

"We should wait for March 6, when the results are out. Till then these questions are hypothetical," he said when asked whether the party could ally with SP to form government in case the results throw up a hung Assembly.

Responding to similar questions, Singh said, "If we get majority, we will form a government. If we emerge as the single largest party, we will stake claim to form government. Otherwise we will sit in the opposition."

Singh was also dismissive of exit polls findings saying, "these have always proved wrong. I throw them in dustbins. You remember how many seats these exit polls had given to Congress in 2009 Lok Sabha elections."

Party insiders said that the likelihood of Congress supporting a government by Samajwadi Party is dim as both Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi have already taken position of having "no truck" with either SP or BSP.

A party leader, however, said that if Congress manages to get 80 seats and its ally RLD 20, then it may try to have its own Chief Minister as "where is it written that some party who has only 10 or more seats than us will essentially have their Chief Minister." The leader, however, refused to specify whether Congress was open to take support of both SP and BSP.

With indications of a not-so-well performance dropping in, some sort of blame game has already begun in the party, though in hushed tones. UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi fired the first salvo saying "if we had spoken a little less it would have been better".

Union Ministers Salman Khurshid and Beni Prasad Verma had also under EC's scanner for their Muslim subquota remarks during campaign. Digvijay Singh's assertion raking up Batla issue was also rejected by the AICC.

A party leader in AICC speaking on the condition of anonymity said, "what Rita has said is right. We would have been in a better position had we spoken less."