Amethi:
With last year's drubbing of Congress in Gandhi bastions Amethi and Rae Bareli fresh in mind, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday warned party workers against factionalism, saying it led to the poor show in the Assembly polls.
Rahul asked the party workers to maintain unity and prepare for the Lok Sabha polls, as "groupism resulted in a poor showing in the last Assembly polls" in Uttar Pradesh.
On the second day of his visit to Amethi, Rahul interacted with PCC members and told them that during the last UP polls "preparations in the party started late, and also, time was lost in groupism, which resulted in party's poor showing."
In 2012 Assembly elections, Congress managed to win only two of the 10 seats in Amethi and Rae Bareli in central Uttar Pradesh.
Rahul asked the office bearers to work with team spirit and warned that groupism only weakens the organisation, party sources said.
He stressed that the workers, who have become detached or have parted ways because of any reason, should be brought back into the party's fold.
The Congress leader said that UPA government has launched several welfare schemes like MNREGS, Rajiv Gandhi Rural Electrification and RTI among others and it has to be seen as to how the common people are apprised of their benefits in a forceful manner by the PCC members.
Expressing concern over corruption in the mid-day meal scheme and public distribution system, Rahul said that all would have to come forward to check it as the governments alone would not be able to do much.
Earlier, Rahul and his sister Priyanka Gandhi who had accompanied him to his Parliamentary constituency on Tuesday, interviewed the shortlisted candidates for the posts of seven block and five city units.
The final results of these interviews, which lasted for two days, are expected in a week's time.
Priyanka later left for New Delhi while Rahul is scheduled to leave on Thursday after attending a programme of CRPF in Ramganj Trisudi, in which Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde will also remain present.
