The CWC meeting on Monday could see fireworks where some leaders were expected raise uncomfortable questions about the party’s campaign, alliance strategy and the role of key advisers besides the “arrogance” of senior Ministers for total disconnect with the party workers.
Questions are already being raised about the style of functioning of party vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Well-placed sources, however, told The Pioneer that a senior AICC general secretary close to 10, Janpath, has already conveyed with “great audacity” to party president Sonia Gandhi about the general perception and his personal experiences about Rahul’s leadership skill and his incapability in “managing the affairs of grand old party”.
Sources said some senior leaders want that this time the customary practice of setting up a committee to go into the reasons for the defeat and then forgetting it should not be repeated. The role of Rahul’s key advisers — including Jairam Ramesh, Mohan Gopal, Madhusudan Mistry and Mohan Prakash — may be questioned.
The Congress drew a blank in 10 States — Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi, Odisha and Rajasthan. In Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, it got two seats each and in Chhattisgarh one. The defeat was so glaring that the BJP got more seats in Uttar Pradesh alone than the total tally of Congress and UPA put together.
A number of Union Ministers could also face the ire of party leaders at the meet for their “total lack of communication” with party workers. As several Union Cabinet Ministers lost in their respective seats miserably, a senior party leader said that there was a total disconnect of the Ministers with party workers and their “arrogance” is to be blamed for the backlash against the party.
Senior Congress leader Kamal Nath has already sounded a word of caution against “patronage politics” and felt that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should have been more forthright and that the communication was a problem. “Its time to end internal culture of patronage and there should be a fresh election of the CWC,” Nath said.
The CWC meeting would be chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi at the AICC headquarters and would also take up issues of immediate concern like saving its Governments in States of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, the politics in Bihar, strategy for the Delhi Assembly politics and deliberations on alliance partners. On the CWC agenda is also the rout in Telangana and Seemandhra and role of those involved in “guiding” or “misguiding” on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.
While party sources have ruled out reports of Sonia and Rahul offering to resign in the wake of debacle, the meeting could see some leaders raising questions about the party’s campaign and alliance strategy. An exercise has already begun in the party to insulate Rahul from any blame game. Sonia and Rahul appeared before the media on Friday and took personal responsibility for the drubbing that left the party with just 44 seats in the 543-member House, a huge climb down from 206 seats it had in the outgoing lok Sabha.
“Accountability should be clearly fixed and action taken wherever there are individual responsibilities. Serious introspection is needed but surely not like in the past when suggestions arising out of the introspection were never implemented,” said Anil Shastri, who is a Special Invitee to the CWC on Twitter. Shastri is believed to have written a blunt letter to Rahul Gandhi on what went wrong and what needs to be done to get the party back on track.