For any pan-Indian political party, there are national issues and regional issues. There have been Congress chief ministers who have raised regional issues quite effectively. Mrs Sonia Gandhi has been very supportive of the regional leadership. In Congress, we don’t believe in caste-based politics, though we do take into consideration the caste composition of any constituency while deciding on candidates for elections. People are fed up of caste-based politics. I think in 2014, we will have to go back to what Indira Gandhi once said, “Na jaat par, na paat par, button dabao haath par.”

•RAVISH TIWARI: Why did the Congress do so badly in the MP assembly elections, its second consecutive defeat?

We did not prepare ourselves as well as we should have in the Vidhan Sabha elections. The BJP did not win, we lost. We made certain mistakes because of which we could not win.

•AMITABH SINHA: What is the Congress strategy vis-a-vis former allies like Lalu Prasad Yadav?

I am a great admirer of Lalu Prasad Yadav to the extent that I have people telling me that I have become Digvijay Yadav instead of Digvijay Singh! He is one of the greatest political brains in the country. But if Congress has to grow in Bihar, it has to grow on its own. Still, Soniaji has great regard for Lalu Yadav

•AMITABH SINHA: Will Congress’s overtures to Nitish Kumar continue or end?

In politics, one has to take into account all options. Nitish Kumar has his own ideological problems with BJP. He is having problems within his own party too. But Nitishji has delivered better than the previous regime. If it hadn’t been for the fodder case, Laluji too would have been a fairly good administrator. But the person who did not deliver in Bihar delivered at the Railways.

... contd.