Congress Working Committee meets today to discuss poll debacle

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 12

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will meet here on Sunday to discuss the poll debacles in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab, which represent the second major jolt to the grand old party in recent months after its previous rout in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will chair the meeting to be held at the AICC headquarters tomorrow evening.

Top sources said threadbare discussions on reasons behind the losses, the road ahead and the need for “surgical interventions to stem the rot” were expected to be held.

The meeting comes soon after senior leaders of the G23 — Kapil Sibal, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari, BS Hooda and Akhilesh Prasad Singh — met at the residence of veteran Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday to express shock at the party’s “disastrous defeat”.

The CWC had at its last meeting on October 16 approved the Congress’ internal poll schedule, which said the party chief’s election would be held by September 20 and Sonia Gandhi would continue as interim chief till then.

As per the schedule so far, Congress’ organisational elections are to commence next month with the poll for block committees and a member each of the Pradesh Congress Committee scheduled from April 16 to May 31. The process is slated to conclude with the election of the AICC president between August 21 and September 20.

It remains to be seen if Sonia, finding herself and her children in the line of fire tomorrow, proposes to advance the internal election schedule or anything else more drastic.

Meanwhile, a CWC member today said, “The fact that 97 per cent Congress candidates have lost their deposits in UP, the fact that the party failed to dislodge the BJP despite anti-incumbency in four states and lost Punjab to newcomer AAP are very hard to reconcile. Some tough decisions would need to be taken and accountability fixed.”

The scale of Congress defeats has anguished many within the party.

AAP’s Somnath Bharti today said the party would soon embark on membership drives across south in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep and would also hold foot marches from April 14, the birthday of Dr BR Ambedkar, from Telangana.

G23 leaders anguished over results

G23 sources claim that none of the assurances of revamp Congress president Sonia Gandhi gave to the leaders of the group over a year ago had been kept, nor reports of AICC panels constituted to examine the causes behind Bengal and Kerala losses submitted to the CWC. “In Bengal and Kerala, the Congress aligned with radical Muslim outfits to the displeasure of even the IUML. Who is taking these decisions?” asked a senior leader, adding issues would be raised in the CWC, especially with the AAP seeking to expand its national footprint to replace the Congress as the principal challenger to the BJP.