Monday, January 23 2006 13:21 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In his first address to a Congress plenary, Rahul Gandhi today (Jan 23, 2006) sought special focus on the Hindi heartland to revive the party's prospects in its traditional stronghold.

"North India has been our stronghold, a source of power. Why is it that it has now become our weakness?" he said.

Gandhi attributed the party's poor showing in parts of India to what he called its failure to come up to public expectations.

"We owe our rise to people. Similarly if we have not been able to perform well in some states it is because of failure to address public grievances," he said.