After open protest within the Congress party in Kerala over their poor performance in the local body polls, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Mullappally Ramachandran took complete responsibility for the election debacle.
This comes after Congress leaders including senior Congress leader K Sudhakaran, MP, demanded a leadership change and speaking to had said he would take up the demand with Congress leadership.
In a press meet convened here on Friday, the KPCC president said that an isolated attack had been carried out against him and no one tried to defend him.
"Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. When the United Democratic Front (UDF) won 19 out of the 20 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, nobody greeted me with a bouquet. So I am taking all this in the same spirit. Now, I am being attacked from all quarters including the media. As KPCC president, I take complete responsibility for Congress's defeat," he said.
When asked about Sudhakaran's remark, the KPCC president said, "It was creative criticism. I don't want to comment on it further."
Later he told that the political affairs committee meeting held yesterday had lasted about 6.5 hours.
"I would not say the result of the election was a defeat at all. I personally think that it was an improvement from 2015 in all the panchayats. Even in municipalities, we got a very clear edge. One can't say that it is a failure, although I will admit that we could not achieve the glorious and great victory that we expected," he said.
He further informed that another two-day meeting would be convened in the coming days which would study the losing seats in great detail, including the loss in the capital Thiruvananthapuram.
"We had a very comfortable margin in Kunnur, where we tied last time with the CPI. One cannot just say that we did not gain. Even in Trichur we have improved a lot," he added.
"The BJP and Kerala Chief Minister Chief Minister (who say that the UDF is no longer relevant) are sadly mistaken. The CM doesn't know the history of the Indian National Congress. It is a resilient party. This is not new for us," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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