Faced with crushing defeat in the assembly polls, Congress top leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said they have learnt from the people's message and would transform the party radically to embed the voice of the common people.
On the question of Modi as the PM candidate of BJP, Sonia Gandhi also said the name of the Prime Ministerial candidate of the Congress will be announced at the opportune time.
Congress was trounced by the BJP in Rajasthan and by BJP and Arvind Kejriwal's rookie Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) party in Delhi assembly polls (where they were ruling) while it also failed to impact in Madhya Pradesh where BJP retained its fort. In Chhattisgarh BJP and Congress are fighting neck and neck.
"The people sent us a message through these elections. I and Congress party have taken the message from heart and not just head," said Rahul Gandhi facing the journalists along with party chief Sonia Gandhi.
"We need to move to a pradigm where where have to give serious space to the common man," said Rahul Gandhi, adding that all his effort now
will be in transforming the party and give people an organization with voice of common people embedded inside it.
"The Congress party has the ability to transform itself and stand up to the expectation of the peple and Congress party will do that," he said.
On Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) success, he said both the major parties are thinking about politics in a traditional way and it is time to start thinking politics in terms of empowerment of the people.
He said empowerment of people will be central to Congress now on.
"I think the AAP has involved a lot of people which the traditional parties did not do," adding that Congress will do it now.
About Modi, Rahul Gandhi said he is a leader of the BJP while the Congress party has its own perspective and the job of them will be to push it before people like BJP will do its own.
Sonia Gandhi said "general elections are different".
"In state elections people look at state levels. Issues are localized at the state level," she said, indicating that the results might be different in the 2014 general elections.
On the PM candidate she said Congress will declare it at the right time.
"I feel people need not worry, at the opportune time the prime ministerial candidate name will be announced," she said.