india

Updated: May 31, 2019 23:41 IST

The two-member Congress committee, tasked with ascertaining the reasons for Rahul Gandhi’s defeat in Amethi, has been informed that the local Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party units had “failed” to cooperate in ensuring the Congress chief’s victory, a senior leader said on the condition of anonymity Friday.

The SP and BSP which had formed an alliance to fight the Lok Sabha polls did not field any candidate in Amethi. The Congress panel that comprises senior party leaders Zubair Khan and KL Sharma started holding assembly segment-wise consultations on Friday.

Khan is AICC secretary and an aide of Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, while Sharma is UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s representative in Rae Bareli and has worked closely in Amethi too. Rahul Gandhi contested from two seats — Amethi in Uttar Pradesh and Wayanad in Kerala — in the Lok Sabha polls. While he was defeated by Smriti Irani in Amethi, he won the Wayanad seat by a record margin of over 4 lakh votes.

Amethi Congress leaders have cited the arithmetic of votes to make their point that while the SP-BSP alliance did not field a candidate in the constituency to help Congress, local units of these parties did not extend the desired cooperation for Gandhi’s victory.