'Congress will bounce back'

Thiruvanthapuram, May 7: Congress leader A.K. Antony on Sunday said his party will bounce back strongly after the defeats in the February-March assembly elections in five states. “Setbacks are only a temporary phenomenon as the Congress will bounce back very strongly. The need of the hour is to strengthen the Congress at the grass-roots level,” Antony said at a party function here. “What one sees in Kerala are only ‘leaders’, while the party strength at the lower levels is weak. That has to change.” He also said the Left government in Kerala, which will complete a year this month, had been an “abject failure on all fronts”. “Every sector in the state has gone haywire and gone down badly,” the former Kerala Chief Minister said.

The Congress leader said the time was not far when Kerala’s ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist will itself hail Congress President Sonia Gandhi. “Those in West Bengal, Tripura and other places have already started asking Sonia to come forward (to lead the opposition). If not today, definitely tomorrow the CPI-M in Kerala too will say the same thing.” He said the first step in opposition unity will surface during the July polls to elect the President. (IANS)