Congress poll rout: Heads to roll?

New Delhi: Rat­tl­ed by the poll debacle, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul on Monday got into a huddle with senior leaders to carry out a post-mor­tem of results in the four states amid talk that some heads could roll.

AICC general secretaries in-charges and observers of all five states of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Ch­h­­attisgarh and Mizo­r­­am submitted their reports to the leadership, expre­ssing surprise and disappointment at the results.

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Mizoram is the only state where the Congress emerged winner. It was a loser in all the others including Delhi and Rajasthan where it was the ruling party.

The seriousness of the exercise could be guaged from the fact that senior ministers like A.K. Ant­ony and Ghulam Nabi Azad skipped a meeting of the Union Cabinet to attend the consultations.

After the two-hour-long meeting, the leaders inc­l­uding party general se­c­retaries declined to talk to reporters nor any info­rmation was available officially from the AICC.

There was speculation that the AICC in-charge of the states where Cong­ress lost have offered to resign but there was no confirmation. Asked about the speculation, one of the participants in the meeting declined to comment.

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Soon after the results in MP, Congress campaign committee chief for the assembly elections in the state Jyotiraditya Scindia had called for 'major reconstruction' and introspection in the party.

“On all accounts we failed, failed and failed. There is a need to relook.... It is the collective leadership of the party in the state (responsible for the loss),” he had said.

Stunned by the drubbing in polls, top leadership of the party had pledged 'deep introspection' with a view to 'transform' the party to rectify its mistakes ahead of 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

At the AICC briefing, party spokesperson Me­em Afzal was subjected to a host of questions as to who should be held responsible and whether Sonia and Rahul should not take the blame for the dismal show.

To this, he replied that the Congress chief and vice president had already accepted the party's defeat. He attributed the Congress’ rout in MP to reasons including the inability of the party to take the message of unity of its faction-ridden unit before people and an ineffective campaign.

Afzal said local issues dominated the polls in all four states and 'question does not arise' about cha­nge of leadership and Ra­hul Gandhi taking a backseat.

To a question on whe­ther the party will take ac­ti­on against general secretary in-charges, Afzal said, “This will not be discussed with you. We will discuss all these modalities within the party.”