New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS): A day after the results of the Bihar Assembly elections came out and those of the bypolls to various constituencies across the nation, Rahul Gandhi steered clear of election issues, and instead focussed on vaccine for Covid-19.
"Even though Pfizer has created a promising vaccine, the logistics for making it available to every Indian need to be worked out. GOI has to define a vaccine distribution strategy and how it will reach every Indian," this was Gandhi's tweet on Wednesday, even as knives were out both in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh as the grand old party made no good contribution.
The Congress could manage only 19 seats in Bihar as against last years' 27. In the bypolls also, the party faced a major drubbing, except for Haryana's Baroda Assembly bypoll win -- that is largely being credited to former Congress Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda rather than the party's central leaders.
In the Gujarat bypolls, Rajiv Satav, a leader considered to be close to Rahul Gandhi and in-charge of the state, could not make a mark. Randeep Singh Surjewala, who is in-charge of Karnataka, lost both seats to the BJP in the bypolls.
In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress could not win the bypolls to unseat Shivraj Singh Chouhan and now the BJP has emerged more powerful. Similar stories emanate from Telangana and Odisha.
However, the solace is in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand where Congress managed to win the bypolls.
In Uttar Pradesh, where Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is in-charge, the party failed to win any seat. The BJP won six seats and the Samajwadi Party took one seat.
And in Gujarat, BJP took all eight seats. The Congress could not retain even a single seat in Gujarat which it had won in 2017 elections. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said, "The results are a trailer for the upcoming local polls. The Congress is a sinking ship...they have lost connect with the people. Results are against them everywhere. It is a party sans leadership."
The Bihar leaders of the Congress are now criticizing the party's central leadership for failures, and saying that Congress has to come out from the set protocol that elections could be fought from Delhi.
In the crisis, only R.P.N. Singh, who is in-charge of Jharkhand could achieve the target of defeating the BJP on both the seats in the bypolls in alliance with the JMM, Bhupinder Singh Hooda did it in the Baroda bypoll, and Bhupesh Baghel wrested the Marwahi seat from Jogis.