Interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, during the Congress Working Committee meeting on Monday, asked party members to reflect on the discouraging performance of the grand old party in the recently concluded state elections and discussed about polls in within the party.
“We have to take note of our serious setbacks. To say that we are deeply disappointed is to make an understatement. I intend to set up a small group to look at every aspect that caused such reverses and report back very quickly,” said Sonia. “These results tell us clearly that we need to put our house in order,” she added.
The party chief’s strong words come days after she described their performance in last month’s Assembly elections as “very disappointing” and added that it was “unexpectedly so”.
Congress struggled to appeal to voters in this round of Assembly elections. In Bengal, where the party joined hands with the Left, it was shut out and the alliance was decimated. By contrast, the Trinamool swept to victory with 213 seats to the BJP’s 77.
In Kerala, the Congress at least held its ground, losing just one seat from 2016 to finish with 41. The Left front, however, registered a commanding win by claiming 99 seats. The BJP won zero seats.
In Tamil Nadu, the party was part of the winning DMK-led alliance and performed relatively better, winning 18 of 25 allocated seats. It, however, failed to return to power in Puducherry – where its government crashed days before polling – after the NR Congress-BJP pairing won 16 of 30 seats.
The deliberations would help the Congress prepare for the next round of Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.
On the issue of internal elections, over the past year, senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor and Kapil Sibal have called for “full-time” and “effective leadership” that will be “visible” and “active” in the field.
In August, 23 leaders wrote to Sonia Gandhi to express concern over the decline of the party, and said that its revival was essential for the nation and democracy. They called for sweeping reforms, including decentralisation of power, empowerment of state units and organizational elections at every level, which engineered a split in the grand old party.
Sonia Gandhi also expressed concern about a possible third Covid-19 wave and said the Centre has abdicated its responsibility and left vaccination to states. She said it would have been financially more equitable for the Centre to provide a free vaccine to all.
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