Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday came down heavily on the party cadre for the party’s debacle in the just-concluded Assembly elections.
Sources within the party said that an annoyed Sonia sought an explanation for the electoral losses from the general secretaries in charge of the States that went to polls, she also raked up the issue of pending party’s President post and organisational elections to be held by month of June.
During the party’s Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, Sonia talked more about the prevailing situation within the party and discussed measures to be taken to “pull up the socks” to strengthen the party base.
In a surprise move, Sonia asked Assam general secretary Jitender Singh, Kerala general secretary Tariq Anwar, West Bengal in-charge Jitin Prasada, Tamil Nadu & Puducherry in-charge Dinesh Gundurao to make a presentation and explain why the party lost in these States.
“I expect them to brief us very frankly on our performance in their respective States. We want them to tell us why we performed well below expectation. These results tell us clearly that we need to put our house in order,” she said.
“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. We need to candidly understand why in Kerala and Assam we failed to dislodge the incumbent governments, and why in West Bengal we drew a complete blank. These will yield uncomfortable lessons, but if we do not face reality, if we do not look the facts in the face, we will not draw the right lessons,” Sonia said in the virtual meeting of the CWC which is the party’s highest decision-making body.
Sources said that West Bengal in charge Jitin Prasada in his presentation said that alliance with ISF ruined the party prospects in the state and mentioned that the ISF alliance was finalized by the Left parties and not the Congress. In the midst of elections, senior party leader Anand Sharma had raised the issue but was snubbed West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury that the Left had given its share of seats to ISF.
Jitin also blamed the committee for delaying the seat sharing pact and also said by the time campaigning for the last phases began where the Congress was strong, the election became bipolar between TMC and BJP, and the party could not get any seat in Malda and Murshidabad, which are its strongholds.
Prasada also said that there was no clarity whether to attack Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee or not and requested the CWC to throw light on the issue of alliance and how to move forward.
For Assam, according to sources, the general secretary in-charge Jitendra Singh highlighted that it was wrong to make CAA as a poll issue, though the party was hopeful to wrest power from BJP and early campaign at the grassroots level by the local leadership would have been result-oriented. The incharge for the Tamil Nadu conveyed that the wave was for DMK and in Puducherry the people was looking for a change due to the allegations of misgovernance by the Naranswamy government, according to the sources. While the Kerala incharge said that though the party worker hard and a regular campaigns by Rahul Gandhi was positive, but the cause of real loss is being assessed and a report in this regard will be shared soon.
Sonia further said the recent Assembly election was a clear indication that the Congress needed to put its house in order,
She said calling the results disappointing would be an understatement and announced the setting up of a small group to analyse the results.
On the occasion Sonia also slammed the Narendra Modi government for ignoring expert advice on Covid-19 and allowing it become a “catastrophe”. She also targeted the government for being “woefully short” on vaccination.
The meeting also saw presentations by chief ministers of Congress-ruled states on the Covid situation and challenges. “The country is paying a horrendous price for the Modi government’s neglect of the pandemic, indeed its wilful patronage of super-spreader events that were allowed for partisan gains. A far deadlier second wave has now overwhelmed us. Some scientists have now cautioned about a third wave overtaking us soon. Some States have already announced a complete lockdown. The public health system across the country has all but collapsed,” she said.
A party colleague, and leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, wrote a letter to the Government to convene a special session of the Parliament to discuss and debate on the pandemic which is taking a heavy toll on the health of the nation every hour, every minute.