Varanasi: The results of elections to the five assemblies held recently were an indicator of the popularity of the Congress and its strength, party president Sonia Gandhi said on Thursday adding that everyone got what they deserved.
"The results of these elections are an indication of Congress' popularity and its strength. The Left have been wiped out," Sonia said at a rally Varanasi.
"Jo jaise karega, woh waisa bharega. (As you sow so shall you reap)," Sonia said in what is perhaps her first reaction to the results of elections to assemblies in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry.
The Left was trounced in West Bengal, giving way to Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress that fought the elections with the Congress; in Assam, the Congress came back for a third consecutive term; in Kerala, the party-led United Democratic Front won narrowly; in Tamil Nadu, the alliance with the DMK lost out to J Jayalalithaa's AIADMK and in Puducherry the breakaway All India NR Congress emerged victorious.
Sonia also hit out at the Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government.
"There is anarchy everywhere, misrule is all pervasive and there is a conspiracy of corruption," she told the gathering of about 30,000 people.
"No one is here to listen to the public. All these things would not be tolerated by the Congress," Sonia added during her speech that lasted for about 20 minutes.
She did not directly name Bhatta-Parsaul, the twin villages that have emerged as the epicentre of the agitation against land acquisition by the Uttar Pradesh government for an expressway project, but specifically mentioned the atrocities on farmers.
Her son and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has taken up the issue in a big way, staging a daylong sit-in at the village after four people, including two police personnel, were killed in clashes. He has also alleged that women were raped and several people killed in the area in Greater Noida near the national capital.
"Hum bahut sharminda hai (We are deeply ashamed)," Sonia said.
The land acquisition bill, she said, would be taken up by parliament soon.
Without naming any party, she referred to the allegations of corruption against the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre and said, "No political party has taken the stringent action (against corruption) as our party."
"People in glass houses should not go throw stones," she added.
The venue of the two-day Congress convention had to be shifted to the Beniyabagh grounds after heavy rains the night before.
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