After UP debacle,Salman Khurshid offered to quit govt,revive Cong

He left it to chief Sonia Gandhi to decide whether he would continue in Cabinet job.

A few days after the last Assembly results were out,Law Minister Salman Khurshid offered Congress chief Sonia Gandhi his services to revive the party’s flagging fortunes in the country.

He left it to her to decide whether he would continue with his Cabinet responsibilities.

While campaigning for his candidate wife Louise in Uttar Pradesh,Khurshid had announced reservations for Muslims within the 27 per cent OBC quota,a move many strategists believe hurt the party’s chances.

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The Congress has set up a review committee under senior minister A K Antony to look into the party’s demolition in Uttar Pradesh and Goa and also its shock defeat in Punjab.

The review committee,which also comprises Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit and Union Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde,is expected to give its report to the party chief by the month end.

Party sources said the Congress wants to set its house in order to be battle-ready ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

Incidentally,Antony had also led a high-level committee constituted by Sonia Gandhi to study the party’s debacle in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.