New Delhi: As top Congress leaders met on Friday to deliberate on its electoral defeats in Maharashtra and Haryana, party chief Mallikarjun Kharge asserted that "tough decisions" will have to be taken to strengthen the organisation from the grassroots, accountability has to be fixed, and urged leaders to remain united and not speak publicly against each other.
In his address at the Congress Working Committee meeting at the AICC headquarters, Mr Kharge said he believes that the EVMs have made the electoral process "suspect" and stressed that it is the constitutional responsibility of the Election Commission to ensure free and fair elections in the country.
Mr Kharge also hit out at internal bickering in the party, and asserting that the lack of unity and statements against own party leaders harms the party a lot.
"Unless we fight elections unitedly and stop making statements against each other, how will we be able to defeat our opponents politically?" the Congress president said.
He also called for removing shortcomings in the party by learning lessons from the election results and said the party would have to evolve a strategy to effectively counter the "propaganda and misinformation" by its rivals.
"Therefore, it is important that we strictly follow discipline. We have to remain united under all circumstances. The party also has the weapon of disciplining. But we do not want to put our workers in any bondage.
"Therefore, everyone needs to think that a victory of the Congress party is our victory and a defeat is our defeat. Our strength lies in the strength of the party," the Congress president said while urging workers not to get dejected with poll results.
He said the party will have to effect changes from the grassroots level to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) to strengthen the party. The AICC is the central decision-making assembly of the party.
Speaking on the Maharashtra polls, Mr Kharge said the assembly poll results after a good outcome in Lok Sabha elections jolted the party.
He said some "tough decisions" will have to be taken due to the "below expectation" performance in state elections.
Riding on its performance in the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress went into assembly polls with new enthusiasm but the election results were not as per the party's expectations, the Congress chief said.
"After the kind of results that came in favour of MVA in the Lok Sabha just six months ago, the result of the assembly polls is beyond the understanding of even political pundits. The kind of results that have come - no arithmetic can justify them," he said.
"INDIA parties formed the government in 2 out of 4 states. But our performance was below expectations. This is a challenge for us in terms of the future," he said.
"We need to immediately learn from the election results and correct all our weaknesses and shortcomings at the organisational level. These results are a message for us," he said.
He noted that the mood was in the Congress' favour during the elections but pointed out that just the atmosphere being in its favour does not guarantee victory.
"We will have to learn to convert the atmosphere into results. What is the reason that we are not able to take advantage of the atmosphere?" he said.
Mr Kharge called on party leaders to work hard and make strategies in a timely manner. "We will have to strengthen our organisation up to the booth level. We will have to be vigilant, alert and cautious day and night, from making the voter list to counting the votes," he said.
"Our preparation from the beginning till the counting of votes should be such that our workers and systems work diligently. In many states, our organisation is not up to expectations. Our biggest need is to strengthen the organisation," he said.
Mr Kharge said that the Congress may have lost elections, but there is no doubt that unemployment, inflation, and economic inequality are burning issues in this country.
He asserted that the caste census is also an important issue today.
He also called upon workers and leaders to start preparing for future polls in advance and scrutinise the electoral rolls properly.
Noting that times have changed, Mr Kharge said the ways of contesting elections have changed and the party will have to make its micro-communication strategy better than its opponents.
"Ways to fight propaganda and misinformation will also have to be found. We will have to move forward by learning lessons from the previous results. The shortcomings have to be removed. Tough decisions will have to be taken with confidence," he said.
Mr Kharge also asserted that the party cannot achieve success by following old methods. "You have to see what your political opponent is doing on a daily basis. We have to take decisions on time. Accountability has to be fixed, " he said.
Mr Kharge said that due to the Congress' repeated defeats, "fascist forces" are making their roots deeper. "One by one they are also taking over the institutions of the state," he added.
"We are celebrating the 75th year of adoption of the Constitution. In these 75 years, the Congress party has done a great job with historic achievements in India. It is because of the Constitution that our country is in the front row of the world. If any one party gets the most credit for making and implementing the Constitution, then it is the Congress," he said.
Mr Kharge said it is the Congress that empowered the common people of the country and gave them rights.
In the last 11 years, a large class of have-nots has emerged, who are troubled by unemployment, inflation and deepening inequality, he said.
"We have to become their strong voice. It is important for the Congress to come to power because if we have a government, we can implement the agenda of 140 crore people of the country. We can implement the agenda of the progress of India," Mr Kharge said.
The meeting was chaired by Kharge and attended by former party chief Rahul Gandhi and AICC general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal and Jairam Ramesh, among others.
While the Maha Vikas Aghadi, of which the Congress is a part, was decimated in the polls in Maharashtra, the party's alliance led by the JMM scored a victory in Jharkhand.
In Haryana, the Congress had suffered a shock defeat at the hands of the BJP.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)