New Delhi: Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot on Wednesday said the Congress is studying the reasons for its defeat in the Lok Sabha polls by conducting surveys at the booth level.
"We have called for booth-wise reports and data to assess what went wrong in the Lok Sabha polls, there are around 50,000 booths. The Congress party got fewer seats from what we were expecting. It is a matter of concern. The Congress president has taken responsibility but it needs to be fixed," he said at the Pradesh Congress Committee office in Jaipur.
Pilot also said that the grand old party is "preparing a road map for the coming Assembly elections".
Two by-elections are due in the state — in Nagaur and Mandawa — as two MLAs, Hanuman Beniwal and Narendra Kumar, resigned on Tuesday after being elected as MPs.
The press conference by the Congress leader today comes after he was cornered with much criticism for his role in, and the result of, the Lok Sabha polls.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday had provided clarification after his earlier comments, in an interview to ABP News, blamed Pilot for the defeat of his son, Vaibhav Gehlot, from Jodhpur constituency in the Lok Sabha elections.
Gehlot took to Twitter to issue the clarification on the remarks made in the Monday interview to the news channel and said that his statement had been taken out of context.
After the poll defeat, rifts in the Rajasthan Congress had surfaced in a 'blame game', leading to a lot of controversy on the party's future in the state.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi had reportedly criticised Gehlot for putting his son above the party.
Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala had also rejected the "misleading news of any differences between Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot".
"The chief minister, in an interview, categorically said that the responsibility of the loss in Rajasthan is both of the organisation and of the government," he said.
However, rifts resurfaced again when two party leaders criticised Gehlot for his earlier remarks on Pilot.
"The statement by the chief minister is totally wrong and against the interest of the party. He himself should take responsibility for the Jodhpur seat," Congress MLA Prithviraj Meena said.
Rajendra Chaudhary, a Congress leader from Jodhpur, said Gehlot's word was final in decisions regarding the constituency.
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