Congress panel deliberating on poll results

Report may be submitted by the end of next week to party president Sonia Gandhi.

 

New Delhi: Congress leaders entrusted with the responsibility to evaluate the party’s performance in the recently held elections in five states are carrying out extensive deliberations with party workers and other functionaries.

The report that will be prepared following these consultations is likely to be submitted by the end of next week to party president Sonia Gandhi.

On 11 May, nine days after the announcement of the election results, Gandhi had set up a five-member group to analyse the party’s performance in the recently concluded Assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala. The group was asked to submit the report within two weeks.

The group headed by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has former Union minister and Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari; Vincent H. Pala, MP from Shillong; Jothi Mani, party’s MP from Karur, Tamil Nadu; and former Union minister Salman Khurshid, as members.

Tewari, while speaking to The Sunday Guardian, said that the members of the committee were focusing on speaking to party leaders and workers and hearing their suggestions and inputs. “Right now, we are listening to them, we are talking to them. There is no timeline as to when we will submit this report,” Tewari said.

According to Vincent Pala, who is a three-time MP and has served in the UPA-1 Cabinet, the committee members, as part of the exercise, are trying to speak to as many stakeholders as possible.

“We are reaching out to every party MLA who has won, apart from those who got the ticket but lost. We are speaking to state party presidents, youth functionaries, woman functionaries and other people who were involved in the party’s campaign. The final report may take time or it may be finalized by next week. Our focus is to speak to a large number of people to get an accurate picture,” Pala said.

A Bengal-based party candidate, who got a call from one of the members, said that it was an exercise that should be done regularly. “I gave my honest feedback on why our performance was not as we wanted it to be. This is an exercise that should be done after every election as it will help the party prepare for the future. The Delhi leaders generally do not call state and district leaders once election gets over to get a feedback as to why we won or lost; this is a welcome change,” he told The Sunday Guardian.