New Delhi, Apr 19 (IANS): Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit Wednesday took "full responsibility" for the Congress defeat in the civic polls, but said the verdict was not a referendum on her rule.
"I take responsibility for it (loss)… I'm not shying away from that. But I will not say it is a referendum on me. Well yes, the responsibility is there," Dikshit told news channel CNN-IBN a day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) retained control of the trifurcated Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) in the city.
"My referendum will come for the elections for which I stand, that is the assembly election. We lost the municipal elections last time also and came back with a great majority," she added. "We have improved our tally since the last election by over nine seats."
Dikshit dismissed allegations that scams had marred the Congress's image.
"What are the scams in Congress may I ask? Where has it been proved? The moment the proof comes out… the guilty are put behind bars. But you can't call a scam a scam just because your opposition says it is a scam," she said.
The chief minister said the party was introspecting the loss and that it would contest the 2013 assembly elections and leave it to the people of Delhi to decide who would form the government.
The BJP won in 138 of the 272 wards in the three newly created municipal corporations of Delhi while the Congress secured victory in 78 wards. The Congress tally went up from 64 seats in 2007 polls to 78 seats this time.
Dikshit, who is in her third consecutive term as chief minister, agreed that price rise was an issue.
"Price rise was an issue, though MCD has no relation with price rise," she said. "Is corruption lesser in MCD," she asked.
BJP leaders Tuesday said price rise and corruption by Congress-led central and state governments was the reason behind the party's defeat in the civic polls.
The chief minister refused to agree that trifurcation of the MCD had anything to do with the results.
"MCD trifurcation will not benefit us, it will benefit Delhi administration," she said.