'We ourselves become our biggest enemy...': Mallikarjun Kharge delivers blunt remarks over Congress's poll debacle

In a blunt remark over Congress's back-to-back poll debacle in Haryana in Maharashtra, party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge emphasised on the criticism from within the outfit itself and said that "sometimes, we become our biggest enemies". 

Kharge was addressing the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in New Delhi.

He said, "Sometimes we ourselves become our biggest enemy. We ourselves will talk negatively and depressingly about ourselves and say that we do not have any narrative. Then I ask, whose responsibility is it to create the narrative and convey it to the public? This is a collective responsibility. The narrative that we had set at the national level is still applicable", as quoted by The Indian Express. 

Stressing on the need for state leadership, the party president asked the workers "till when they would depend on the party's national faces."

“We may have lost the elections, but there is no doubt that unemployment, inflation, and economic inequality are burning issues. Caste census is also an important issue today. Issues like the Constitution, social justice and harmony are issues of the people. But this does not mean that we forget the important local issues in the electoral states. It is also important to understand the different issues of the states in detail in time and make a solid campaign strategy around them. Till when will you fight the state elections with the help of national issues and national leaders?” Mallikarjun Kharge pointed out. 

Kharge further remarked that the lack of unity and statements against each other puts the party in a bad position. 

“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. The most important thing that I keep saying is that lack of unity and statements against each other harm us a lot. Unless we fight elections unitedly and stop making statements against each other, how will we be able to defeat our opponents politically? Therefore, it is important that we strictly follow discipline. We have to remain united under all circumstances,” he said.

Notably, the grand-old-party has been on the receving end of brickbats, following its poor show in Haryana and Maharashtra assembly polls. 

What did Kharge say on EVMs?

Owing to the opposition's constant claims involving the purported "hacking of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)", Mallikarjun Kharge said that the results of the assembly polls are "beyond the understanding", given the opposition's impressive performance in the Lok Sabha polls 2024. 

"I believe that EVM has made the electoral process suspicious. The Election Commission is a Constitutional institution, so the less said about it the better. However, it is the constitutional responsibility of the Election Commission to ensure free and fair elections in the country. Questions are being raised again and again as to what extent this responsibility is being fulfilled. After the kind of results that came in favour of MVA in the Lok Sabha just six months ago, the result of the Assembly elections is beyond the understanding of even political pundits", he said. 

The party president also called for building a stronger micro-communiation strategy. 

"We will have to improve the ways of contesting elections in every situation. Because times have changed. The ways of contesting elections have changed. We will have to make our micro-communication strategy better than the opponents. We will have to find ways to fight propaganda and misinformation. We will have to move forward by learning lessons from the previous results. The flaws have to be removed. Tough decisions will have to be taken with confidence,” Kharge said.