Agency, New Delhi :A day after exit polls said the ruling Congress is headed for a rout, its senior leader Kamal Nath seemed at pains to distance party vice president Rahul Gandhi from the possible crushing defeat.”The results will be based on government performance and Rahul Gandhi is not a part of the government,” Kamal Nath, a union minister, said yesterday. The BJP has predicted that the Congress will find its scapegoat in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in its attempt to protect party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul from criticism. “The mantra in the Congress is to blame others in case of something bad while giving all the credit to the Congress President and Vice-President. Therefore, the PM will be blamed and others too. There will be talk about collective responsibility,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.The Congress campaign for general elections 2014 was fronted by Rahul Gandhi, 43.Exit polls that aired after voting ended on Monday show that the party is headed for a humiliating defeat at the hands of the BJP, which, most of the polls say, is on course to get a majority in Parliament along with its allies.Votes will be counted on Friday, May 16, and despite its vociferous assertions to the contrary, the Congress seems to be prepping for the worst.Even before the exit polls aired, Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed stated, “Rahul Gandhi is not in the government. All of us should be accountable.” But he also added, “We will have great results and all of you will be surprised.”He pointed out that last time “exit polls gave us 68 seats less than what we got.”Exit polls in 2004 and 2009 had overestimated the BJP-led coalition’s performance. In both elections, the Congress surprised pollsters. Javedekar claimed that this time the BJP will do better than exit polls have predicted and that its National Democratic Alliance will cross the 300-seat mark. It needs to get 272 for a majority in the Lok Sabha.
