Congress needs to analyse why it loses in direct fight with BJP: Priyanka Chaturvedi

New Delhi [India], December 3 : After the Congress party performed poorly in state assembly elections in the Hindi heartland, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray faction) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said the Congress should work on its shortcomings and analyze why it loses most of the time when there is a "direct fight" against the BJP.
"Congress needs to work on its shortcomings and see why it loses when there is a direct fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is for the Congress party to see," Chaturvedi told ANI.
Speaking on Congress' defeat in Chhattisgarh, Chaturvedi said, "It seems that they could not get their message to the people. You had your government in Chhattisgarh. You did not manage to convey to the people whatever work you had done."
On the Congress' loss in Madhya Pradesh, the Shiv Sena leader said, "The BJP had taken down the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. Even three years after that, if the momentum could not pick up after the 2018 elections, what were your shortcomings?"
Chaturvedi said that the Congress should have avoided the face-off against the Samajwadi Party, an INDIA bloc partner of the Congress, and should have shown "generosity".
"You could have avoided the ugly face-off against the Samajwadi Party. You are the larger party. If you are taking on big responsibilities in the INDIA alliance, you need to show generosity. That was missing," she said ahead of the upcoming INDIA bloc meeting on December 6...If we have formed an alliance together and you are leading it then you should be generous," she said.
Chaturvedi suggested that the Congress should rectify its "mistakes" and focus its energies "unitedly" ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
"You can rectify your mistakes and unitedly focus your energies and project an alternate vision of India in the upcoming polls," she said.
"Discussions should be on how will India progress, on what path it should walk, what should be our priorities, what should be our agenda, how will put forth our ideas to the people, how many seats will be allocated to whom and what should be the basis of that. If these are decided now, then a smooth movement will be created for 2024," Chaturvedi said while speaking about the upcoming INDIA bloc meeting.
On the INDIA bloc working together with the Congress and taking on the BJP, the Shiv Sena leader said, "Everyone is mature and everyone is on the same table on putting the authoritarian government out of power."
"All agencies are under the central government's control and are being used as an election toolkit. Money power is being misused. So it is proper for us to be together to decide whether our future generation will be running on the models practised in China and North Korea or in a democratic model," Chaturvedi said.
Speaking on the "North Versus South" controversy that triggered a social media storm on Sunday as the Congress won the Telangana elections, Chaturvedi said, "There cannot be any politics on 'this' versus 'that'...In Maharashtra, politics over Marathas versus the OBC has started. This 'versus' politics is that of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The INDIA bloc needs to win North, South, East and West and form the government."
The BJP is on its way to creating a record in Madhya Pradesh and its expected coming to power again after having ruled the state for 18 of the past 20 years is an apparent indication of the party's organizational hold in the state as well as popularity of its schemes and leadership.
Rajasthan seems to have followed the over three-decade-old trend of rotating governments and the Congress government led by Ashok Gehlot appears to be on its way out.
BJP has bounced back strongly in Chhattisgarh where the ruling Congress was supposed to have done well. A strong, sustained and aggressive campaign and its matching Congress in poll promises seem to work for the BJP.
The counting of votes in the four states, which went to the polls last month, started at 8 am on Sunday.