We didn't hit a six, we will renew ourselves: Rahul

New Delhi: Smarting under the rout of Congress in assembly elections in four states, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday acknowledged that his party 'didn't really hit a six' in recent polls but expressed confidence in its ability to rise from adversity time and again.

"Let me begin by acknowledging that we didn't really hit a six in the last elections. We did not do as well as we expected and I now get the sense, I now understand what it feels like when you have to go to your AGMs with bad news," Gandhi said with a grin in a veledictory address at FICCI.

Gandhi led the party from the front in the recent round of assembly polls, which saw Congress debacle in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi with Mizoram being the only silver lining for the party.

As the results were widely interpreted by analysts as some sort of anti-Congress wave, he made it clear that he was not interested in doing the usual postmortem of results and would strive to listen to the real message of the outcome.

"The recently held elections have made their point. We need to have the foresight and humility to accept the messages being expressed to us without resorting to the usual props of statistical data and excuse-making," Gandhi said.

Noting that a political party’s strength lies in the voice of those it represents, he said,"we will listen to the voices we represent. The Congress Party has long prided itself in this very ability and used it to rise from adversity time and again." He promised that the party will renew itself.

"We will renew ourselves. And will fight strong and confident in order to protect the values of tolerance and compassion that are the essence of India," Gandhi said in a speech in which he took a dig at the BJP over its ideology.