Rahul to review UP poll results Friday

New Delhi, April 3 (IANS) Having taken responsibility for the Congress' dismal performance in last month's Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi will review the results with party leaders Friday to work out a strategy for the 2014 general elections.

According to sources, the newly-elected legislators, as also the MPs belonging to the Uttar Pradesh, will attend the meeting, which was earlier scheduled for March 30 but could not take place as leaders feared a stormy session.

On Thursday, Gandhi will discuss the ground situation with party candidates who lost the assembly polls despite polling 20,000 votes and above.

Besides, candidates who had lost the 2009 Lok Sabha polls despite securing more than 100,000 votes have also been called for the preliminary meeting, said sources.

Despite a high-pitched poll campaign by Gandhi, the Congress could increase its tally in Uttar Pradesh by only six seats from 22 in 2007 to 28 in 2012 out of the total 403 seats.

Gandhi, who is determined to revive the grand old party in the state, plunged into the assembly poll campaign in the hope to build upon the electoral gains the Congress had in the 2009 general elections when it bagged 22 Lok Sabha seats out of the total 80 in the state.

Upbeat over the 2009 results, Gandhi had launched his Mission 2012 hoping to oust the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party and establish a Congress government in Uttar Pradesh.

Party insiders said the anti-BSP momentum generated by the Congress actually benefited the rival Samajwadi Party, which rode to power backed by a strong organisational structure and a promising young face in Akhilesh Yadav, who is now the chief minister.

Shocked with the 2012 assembly poll results, Gandhi had said the party's fundamentals in the state were not right.

Uttar Pradesh is the home state of the Nehru-Gandhi family. While Rahul is an MP from Amethi, his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi represents Rae Bareli in the lower house of parliament.

Sonia had cited absence of strong local leadership and wrong selection of candidates as reasons for the party's poor show in Uttar Pradesh.