Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday called for “harsh decisions” in view of recent electoral setbacks faced by the party in Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections after ‘encouraging’ performance in the parliamentary elections.

In the last parliamentary elections early this year, Congress won 99 seats after winning only 52 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 44 in the 2014 general elections.
In his opening remarks at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in New Delhi, Kharge also referred to questions being raised about whether the Election Commission of India was performing its constitutional duty.

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The CWC meeting at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters here was also attended by Congress MP and Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi, Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, and other senior party officials.

Kharge warned that the Congress cannot let the “fascist forces” deepen and strengthen their roots and that is why it was important and necessary for the party to win elections and defeat these forces.

Asserting that the Congress has to defeat the “divisive forces,” he said, “We have to defeat the divisive forces ruling the country at all costs and restore peace, progress, brotherhood and harmony.”.

Stating that people are “waiting” for the Congress, Kharge said, “We have built a beautiful and a glorious nation, and people of the country are ready to repose their faith in us…they are waiting for us and we cannot disappoint them”.
The Congress president accused the BJP government of trying to divert the attention of people from its repeated failures. Referring to violence in Manipur and Sambhal, he said there were so many sensitive and serious issues the country was facing.
Kharge said that during the last eleven years of the BJP rule at the Centre, a huge section of “have-nots” has come up in the country which has been hit by massive unemployment, inflation and grave economic disparities.

“We have to become their voice”, he noted, adding, “It is also important for the Congress party to form the government so that the agenda for progress of the country and the deprived people is pursued and implemented.”

Assuring that there was no need to feel desperate or dejected, he said, there was a need for complete change from the grassroots level to block, district and the AICC levels.
“We will have to bring in the changes according to the changing times”, he said, while asserting, “We have successfully faced the challenges in the past and we will face these challenges in the future also and move ahead.”
Referring to the questions being raised about the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), he said the Election Commission of India is constitutionally obligated to ensure free and fair elections.

He said, “While it was the constitutional obligation of the Election Commission of India to ensure free and fair elections, but questions are repeatedly being raised as to what extent the ECI was fulfilling its constitutional responsibilities.”
On the recently concluded Maharashtra elections, he said, the results defied all calculations, particularly when the MVA had done exceptionally well in the parliamentary elections just six months ago.

Notably, Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a major setback in the recently held Maharashtra state elections as the party won just 16 seats out of 288 assembly segments while its ally Shiv Sena (UBT), led by Uddhav Thackeray, won 20 seats, and the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) secured just 10 seats.
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance emerged victorious with 132 seats, while its allies–the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde and the NCP led by Ajit Pawar–secured 57 and 41 seats, respectively.

Earlier in the Haryana assembly elections too, Congress faced a similar fate, with the BJP securing a third consecutive term in government after winning 48 seats in the 90-member assembly while the Congress only managed to secure 37 seats.