Rahul Gandhi Accepts That Congress Is On A Decline, Accuses BJP Of Stealing Goa Mandate With Money

The results of the assembly polls in five states, especially Uttar Pradesh, seem to have accentuated difficulties for the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

BCCL

Even as murmurs within the party grew over his leadership, Gandhi on Tuesday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of 'stealing' the mandate by using money power to win elections in Uttar Pradesh and other states.

"Out of five states, BJP won two, we won three. In two of the states we won but democracy is being undermined by them (BJP), through financial power and money," Rahul Gandhi told reporters.

BCCL

His comments came hours after the Supreme Court asked the BJP to go ahead with its oath-taking ceremony in Goa where Congress was ignored by the state governor despite having won the highest number of seats.

"Our fight is against BJP's ideology, what they did in Manipur and Goa is exactly the ideology we are fighting against," he added, though he admitted to slip ups in UP. "There is a need to make structural changes in Congress," the senior leader said.

BCCL

"We are in the opposition, you have ups and downs and we had a little down in UP; we accept it," he said.

However, he also added, "We had five elections. It's true we lost elections in UP and Uttarakhand but if you see these elections you will see that regional leaders were running the elections and that's why we won Punjab,".