Bokaro: Former Godda MP and senior Congress leader Furkan Ansari on Tuesday blamed central party leaders, particularly Rahul Gandhi, for the Bihar assembly election loss and said the party's style of functioning needs a change to strengthen it.
The Bokaro Congress Committee reported Ansari's criticism of the party and its AICC leaders to the state unit for its perusal.
Speaking to reporters during his brief stop here en route to Godda while returning from Ranchi, the 72-year-old leader said, "Congress's defeat in Bihar was due to over-confidence and the inability of the top leaders to connect with people at the grassroots level. He also criticized the Bihar election in-charge Ajay Kumar and the party's Jharkhand in-charge RPN Singh ."
Referring to an election rally by Rahul Gandhi at Khelgaon in Bihar, the former MP claimed that people looked unimpressed as they did not understand anything that he (Rahul) spoke.
Ansari, a popular Congress leader from the minority community in Jharkhand, also said, "The status of the party will improve only when Rahul Gandhi changes his advisors, who kept him in the dark. His advisors are MBAs or professional degree holders and do not have any political background. They can only be good managers."
Criticizing Rahul's advisors further, he said, "Do they know how to connect with the voters at the ground level? It would be better if Rahul keeps a politician as his advisor to give him the right political suggestions."
Ansari also said Congress veterans felt very bad when they have to address the advisors as 'sir' and informed that he has sent a letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on his views.
Ansari has been associated with Congress since the 1980s when Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister.
He added, "I am pained by the downfall of Congress, which is a secular party and the only alternative to BJP. The party has to grow stronger and needs to correct the mistakes."
His son, Irfan Ansari is a Congress MLA from Jamtara and a co-working president of Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee.