Congress president Sonia Gandhi met AICC general secretaries Digvijay Singh and Birender Singh and CWC members G.S. Charak and Jagmeet Singh Brar individually at the AICC headquarters where she got first-hand reports from them on the humiliating defeats in UP, Punjab and Goa and the party’s “performance” in Uttarakhand.
While Mr Digvijay Singh and Mr Birender Singh played key roles in UP and Uttarakhand, Mr Charak and Mr Brar are AICC leaders in charge of party affairs in Punjab and Goa.
Later, she conducted a similar exercise with political secretary Ahmed Patel, AICC treasurer Motilal Vora, Union ministers and party general secretaries Ghulam Nabi Azad and Mukul Wasnik, AICC media department chairperson Janardan Dwivedi, general secretaries B.K. Hariprasad and Vilas Muttemwar and CWC members Shakeel Ahmed (in charge of West Bengal), Dhani Ram Shandil (Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Mizoram), Jagdish Tytler (Orissa), and Mohsina Kidwai, in charge of the Mahila Congress.
AICC officials gave their feedback on the factors that led the to the party’s dismal performance, sources said.
According to them, she heard the officials patiently.
The party has very little time left to take on the BJP in the states ruled by the saffron party — Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. And the BJP has been the main player in Rajasthan and Delhi. All these states are going to the polls before the General Election.
On Wednesday evening the Congress top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mrs Gandhi, held deliberations ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament. Earlier, interacting with reporters at AICC headquarters, Mrs Gandhi said the wrong selection of candidates, too many leaders and organisational weaknesses were among the key factors that contributed to the party’s poor performance.