‘We have to rebuild Cong from scratch’

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Routed in the Bihar polls, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday said the results indicated that the party would have to rebuild itself from the scratch.
Reacting over the Assembly elections results in Bihar where the Congress could win only four seats, Mrs Gandhi said, “As far as our party is concerned, we did not have much hope. We took a deliberate decision not to work in alliance with other parties. Results obviously indicate that our party has to start from the scratch to rebuild itself and that is what we plan to do.”
The Congress president, however, said, “I congratulate chief minister Nitish Kumar on his success.”
AICC spokesperson Manish Tewari said, “We had decided to go alone to rebuild our party in the state. It was a difficult decision when we decided to go alone. By going alone the base which we had lost we would try to regain that.”
Accepting the verdict, he said: “The trends indicate that Nitish Kumar is going to become chief minister of Bihar again. We accept the decision of the people of Bihar.” Mr Tewari said, “I would like to take you back to the UP elections in 2007 when the Congress went alone and did not fare well. But again like Bihar it was a beginning (to go alone).”

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PM assures Centre support
Age Correspondent
NEW DELHI

Nov. 24: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated victorious Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar following the impressive win registered by his party in the state Assembly elections whose results were declared on Wednesday. Mr Kumar was assured by the PM that the Centre will work with the state government for the development of Bihar.