Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Image credit: PTI
New Delhi: Deeply disappointed over the outcome of the recently held assembly elections, said interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi addressing the Congress Working Committee, convened to discuss the party's poor performance.
She urged to form a panel to evaluate the poll failings and suggest making the party back to normal. Sonia Gandhi also wanted the expediting election of the next President of the Congress.
"This CWC meeting has been convened to discuss the results of the recently-held Assembly polls. We have to take note of our serious setbacks. To say that we are deeply disappointed is to make an understatement," she said.
"I intend to set up a small panel to look at every aspect that caused such reverses and report back very quickly. We need to candidly understand why in Kerala and Assam we failed to dislodge the incumbent governments, and why in West Bengal we had drawn a complete blank. These will yield uncomfortable lessons, but if we do not face up to the reality, if we do not look the facts in the face, we will not draw the right lessons," she said.
The party is also set to choose its new president by the end of June.
"There is another important issue on which I would like your guidance. When we met on January 22, we had decided that the process for electing a Congress president would be completed by the end of June. The election authority chairperson Madhusudan Mistri has prepared a schedule. Venugopal will read it out to you after our discussion on Covid-19 and the election results" said Sonia.
The General Secretaries - Jitender Singh for Assam, Tariq Anwar for Kerala, in charge Dinesh Gundurao for Tamil Nadu & Puducherry and Jitin Prasada for West Bengal - are to make their presentations.