Cong needs to revisit 'ideological construct': Manish Tewari

New Delhi, Feb 10: With Congress decimated in Delhi elections, its senior leader Manish Tewari today said the party's "ideological construct" needs to be revisited as Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has eaten up the space. The former Union Minister also felt that the outcome of the polls could have been different if the campaign had been carried out collectively by his party.

"You will need to go and revisit your ideological construct because for 10 years you built left of the centre idealogical construct... Despite an ideological construct which was left to the centre, which was buttressed by a very very strong legislative action, you still have a situation where the AAP has taken over space," he said.

"That calls for a serious introspection on how get back the left to centre space back," he added. He insisted that the setback for Congress, which failed to get even one seat, could not attributed to individuals. There were 70 seats at stake. "If collectively everybody would have been pitched into the campaign, it would have possibly made a difference," Tewari said.

Congress, which ruled the national capital for 15 years till December 2013, suffered a humiliating defeat as it was not able to even open its account in the polls to 70 Assembly constituencies. Asked about Ajay Maken's resignation, he said there has been tradition that people step down owning responsibility. Congress general secretary Ajay Maken, who was the party's face in the Delhi polls today resigned from the post, taking moral responsibility for the humiliating defeat at the hustings.

"I take moral responsibility for the party's defeat in Delhi assembly polls," he told reporters as the poll results showed that Congress was unable to even open its account.

PTI