Khursheed owns responsibility for Cong defeat in UP

A day after Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul blamed the party's weak organisational structure in Uttar Pradesh for its electoral debacle, on Thursday UPCC chief Salman Khurshid owned moral responsibility for it. He left it to the party leadership to decide on a new set-up.

Chosen by Gandhi to lead the party in the state, Khurshid, in an apparent response to his detractors in the party, said, "We never aimed for the moon but we expected considerably better results".

Asked if he would be resigning from the post in view of his owning responsibility for the party's worst electoral drubbing, the UPCC chief said, "There is no need for me to resign. I was sent to UP to strengthen the party set-up.

"It was a difficult task. I tried to do it to the best of my ability. What would be the best leadership and team of the party will have to be decided by the leadership," he added.

Khurshid, earlier in the day, met the party chief and Amethi Lok Sabha MP Rahul Gandhi and reviewed with them about the party's preparedness, including campiagn strategy, selection of candidates and organisational structure.

Expressing satisfaction over the defeat of communal and casteist forces in the state, he, however, said, "We failed to accomplish our objective of winning a sizeable number of seats."

He expressed the confidence that Congress will return with beter results in future.