Interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday asked party leaders to take note of the Congress party’s dismal performance in the recently concluded state elections.
“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,” Sonia Gandhi said while presenting her opening remarks during the Congress working committee meeting.
“These results tell us clearly that we need to put our house in order,” she added.
The party chief’s strong words come days after she described their performance in last month’s Assembly elections as “very disappointing” and added that it was “unexpectedly so”.
Congress struggled to appeal to voters in this round of Assembly elections. In Bengal, where the party joined hands with the Left, it was shut out and the alliance was decimated. By contrast, the Trinamool swept to victory with 213 seats to the BJP’s 77.
In Kerala, the Congress at least held its ground, losing just one seat from 2016 to finish with 41. The Left front, however, registered a commanding win by claiming 99 seats. The BJP won zero seats.
In Tamil Nadu, the party was part of the winning DMK-led alliance and performed relatively better, winning 18 of 25 allocated seats. It, however, failed to return to power in Puducherry – where its government crashed days before polling – after the NR Congress-BJP pairing won 16 of 30 seats.
