Congress Working Committee to meet on Sunday to discuss poll debacle

The Congress Working Committee will meet on Sunday to discuss the outcome of the assembly elections in five states where the party received a drubbing, the sources said.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will chair the meeting of the party’s top decision-making body at its headquarters here at 4 PM tomorrow, they said.

The Congress lost Punjab to the AAP and could not win any of the four other states – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

The Sunday meeting is likely to see some fireworks as the G-23 leaders had suggested corrective measures after the previous round of assembly polls, when the party lost Puducherry and failed to make a mark in Kerala, Assam and West Bengal, but there had been little movement on that front.

The leaders of G-23, who have been demanding an organisational overhaul, had met Friday evening at the residence of senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to evolve their strategy ahead of the crucial CWC meeting.

Azad and senior leader Anand Sharma are the two leaders of the group who are part of the CWC. Mukul Wasnik had initially signed a letter from the group to Gandhi but has since kept his distance. The ‘Group of 23’, at their Friday meeting, expressed shock at the party’s defeat. Sources said the leaders discussed the way forward and steps for the revival of the Congress which has become even ”more marginalised, weakened and isolated”.

They also expressed dismay at the Congress leadership not taking any corrective steps to revive the party, they said.

Some leaders were concerned that the report of the committee formed to evaluate the party’s losses in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Puducherry was not even discussed.

Following the poll debacle, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who is among the G-23 leaders, had on Thursday said it is clear that change is unavoidable.

“All of us who believe in INC India are hurting from the results of the recent assembly elections. It is time to reaffirm the idea of India that the Congress has stood for and the positive agenda it offers the nation.

”And to reform our organisational leadership in a manner that will reignite those ideas and inspire the people. One thing is clear, change is unavoidable if we need to succeed,” he had tweeted.