Cong to sit in Opposition, says support to Mayawati irrelevant

New Delhi, May 11 (UNI) Conceding that the performance of the party in the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh has been disappointing, the Congress today said that it would now sit in the Opposition and discharge its responsibility to the best of its ability.

"As far as the Congress is concerned we are conscious that the mandate is for us to sit in the Opposition and discharge our responsibility to the best of our ability," party Spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said briefing mediapersons here.

Welcoming the verdict of the people in giving a clear verdict to the Bahujan Samaj Party to form a new Government, he said the verdict was against the misrule and anti-people policy of the Samajwadi Party Government. He was happy to note that the people of the State had rejected a communal party like the BJP.

Asked whether the Congress would extend support to the BSP Goernment to be formed by Ms Mayawati, Mr Singhvi said it was an academic and hypothetical question. There is no question of a majority party seeking the support of another party. It is irrelevant. Besides unless someone sought the support of another it made little sense to ask the former for taking the support, he said. "Let us wait and watch what happens," he added.

Claiming that the Congress had improved its position in Uttar Pradesh compared to the last Assembly elections, he said," This is not to say that we are happy. We are certainly disappointed and shall try to improve." The Congress, he said, would do an introspection of what went wrong in due course of time in order to improve its performance next time.

Disagreeing with the view that Rahul Gandhi had failed to deliver the goods, Mr Singhvi said Mr Gandhi had been able to activate and enthuse a large section of the electorate. "He led from the front and did the camapaigning with full vigour and enthusiasm," he said, adding it was a different matter that the party could not convert the enthusiasm in the party's ranks into votes.

However, there was scope for improvement and the party would emerge stronger and more victorious, the Spokesman said.

Replying to a question about the Taj Corridor Project, the Congress Spokesman said the case was directly being monitored by a Supreme Court Bench and there was no question of the Congress doing this or that. The CBI could not do anything without the direction from the Court.

UNI