Congress poor performance in recent polls must be looked into, says Kapil Sibal

By Siddharth Sharma Days after Assembly poll results in the four states and a Union Territory, senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal said the party's performances must be looked into as it could not secure a single seat in West Bengal and also failed in Assam and Kerala.

"Congress has not performed well in the recently held Assembly polls. It failed in Assam and Kerela. The party could not secure a single seat in West Bengal," said Sibal while speaking to ANI. "Now when voices are being raised from the party, this debacle should be looked into," the leader added.

The former Union Minister further said he will not comment further on the issue of Congress' performance and will speak on the issue at the appropriate time. "We'll present our views. Today everyone from all parties should work together to save people's lives amid COVID-19," he added.

Targetting Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the COVID-19 situation in the country, he said that PM should say that we will win this struggle against the pandemic, adding that elections are a different matter but this is a battle of life and death. Sibal, who was part of the rebel G-23 camp in the Congress, that had asked for an organisational revamp in a letter to Sonia Gandhi last August, said the latest poll results were a matter of concern but dealing with the pandemic was a priority.

He and other leaders from the G-23 like Manish Tiwari, Gulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma have congratulated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for defeating Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bengal. When questioned why Congress leaders are calling Mamata "Jhansi ki Rani", he said, "When PM won 2019 polls, I congratulated him, could not have called him Jhansi ki Rani, he was Goliath. We must congratulate leaders who win. Centre did everything and Election Commission helped. Despite that, if Mamata ji gets 2/3rd majority, she should be called Jhansi ki Rani."

Trinamool Congress (TMC) won 213 seats in the just concluded West Bengal assembly elections. Bharatiya Janata Party garnered 77 seats in the 294-seat state Assembly.