Not right to blame anyone, says MLA Geeta Bhukkal on poll results

Former Education Minister and sitting Congress MLA from Jhajjar Geeta Bhukkal said it was not appropriate to blame anyone for the party’s defeat in the Assembly elections but there was a need for introspection and analysis to determine the reasons for the unexpected results.

Bhukkal was interacting with mediapersons here today. “Every Congress leader and worker has struggled hard in the past decade to bring the party back to power so this is not a time to blame anyone for the defeat but introspection is necessary,” she said, while replying to a question.

The five-time MLA said the BJP talked out Scheduled Castes (SCs), farmers, women and other sections of society but it should tell everyone what exactly it had done for the welfare of SCs, farmers and other sections in the past decade. The BJP did nothing except dividing the people on the lines of caste and religion, she alleged.

“We are dejected by the poll outcome as every exit poll, media survey and ground report was in favour of the Congress and openly indicating that the Congress was coming back to power due to anti-incumbency as the BJP had utterly failed to live up to people’s expectations and resolve public grievances,” said Bhukkal, adding that people in large numbers were also participating in the Congress rallies and other programmes across the state to strengthen the party’s claim of forming the government.

In reply to another question, she said the absence of organisational structure was also one of the major reasons behind the party’s defeat.

Bhukkal also raised a question over the functioning of the electronic voting machines (EVMs), saying that the Congress had given its written complaint to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in this regard. “It is the duty of the ECI to take immediate cognisance of the complaints by not working as BJP’s A and B team,” she added.

Bhukkal further said that the Congress welcomed the people’s verdict but if the BJP had grabbed it through cheating then the Congress leaders would continue to fight a battle against it till the end. “We have been flagging public issues in the past decade and will continue to do so in the next five years too to get the issues resolved,” she added.