The results of the recently concluded assembly elections in 5 states no doubt come as a disappointment to Party workers and sympathizers across the country. The Congress fought a positive, energetic and united campaign. The opponent often appeared leaderless and rudderless. The energy and the support of the people was with us. And yet, for whatever the reasons, we were not able to form governments in as many states as we expected. Telangana was the only state in which we were able to plant our flag.

However, upon closer inspection, the results bring with them some rays of hope and optimism for the upcoming Lok Sabha contest. The first point to note is that the BJP is now left with no leaders of any stature in these states. The insecure central leadership of the BJP has cut down to size all the senior leadership of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. The state BJP organizations now only have inexperienced leaders with no mass following, no connection with workers, no knowledge of issues and no experience leading major electoral campaigns. The BJP declared no CM candidate in any state and fought the entire campaign in the name of one man, Narendra Modi. They publicized his name will all the money and administrative machinery at their disposal. After all of their effort, the Congress still managed a very respectable vote-share in every state.

The implications of this are clear. The BJP fought these state elections as if they were the Lok Sabha elections and yet could not wipe out the Congress. The Congress has nearly no Lok Sabha seats in these states. If the Congress retains the vote-share it has obtained in the state elections, it will manage to take away quite a few seats from the BJP in the Hindi heartland and unseat the BJP from power in the center.

We congratulate the Congress workers and leaders of Telangana and thank the people of Telangana for voting the Congress to power. You have provided Congress workers around the Country with the energy to make the final push to remove the BJP from power in the Centre.

Jai Congress. Jai Hind. Jai Jagat.