Central rule not imposed in UP under Left pressure: Congress

New Delhi, May 20 (UNI) Terming the decision not to dismiss the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government as a ''terrible blunder'', the Uttar Pradesh unit of the Congress today said it had committed the mistake under pressure from the Left parties -- a decision that resulted in an electoral mayhem for all of them.

''But the Left parties also paid a heavy price for the political blunder with an electoral rout in the assembly elections in the state,'' Uttar Pradesh Congress Party spokesman Vijay Khaira told UNI.

This is for the first time that the Congress has launched a frontal attack on the CPI after its disastrous performance in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections.

The acerbic observation also came at a time when the left parties are threatening to reconsider their support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre in view of its ''anti-people'' economic policies and spiralling prices of essential commodities.

Dr Khaira also admitted that the Congress failed to translate the huge presence of people at party election meetings into votes because of organisational weaknesses.

''Despite a blistering campaign by youth MP Rahul Gandhi, the presence of mammoth crowd at the Congress poll meetings in Uttar Pradesh did not translate into favourable votes because of an ineffective and weak party organisation,'' he said.

He also conceded that there was poor coordination between the party's Central High Command and the state unit.

About the reasons for the party's debacle in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, he said people were tormented by utter lawlessness and 'Goonda Raj' during the Mulayam Singh Yadav's dispensation.

''Had the Congress imposed President's rule in the state on the basis of the Governor's report, the party could have won the sympathy of the harassed people. It then could have secured a respectable position in the assembly,'' he observed.

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