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The Congress Working Committee (CWC), which met here on Monday through video conferencing, has decided to appoint a fact finding committee to evaluate the election results and the reasons for the setbacks the party suffered in four States that went to polls. It was also decided to defer the organisational elections to elect the next Congress president.
Briefing reporters after the meeting, Congress general secretary incharge of organisation KC Venugopal said the party will fix responsibility for the debacle based on the report of the fact finding team. He said the Congress president Sonia Gandhi will appoint the members within 48 hours from Monday.
The meeting also heard the party’s Chief Ministers on the Covid situation. Party general secretaries — Jitender Singh for Assam, Tariq Anwar for Kerala, AICC in charge for Tamil Nadu & Puducherry Dinesh Gundurao and West Bengal in charge Jitin Prasada briefed the meeting on the electoral outcome. The Congress leadership denied the reports that the office bearers have offered to resign following the setback.
Gandhi told the meeting, “These results tell us clearly that we need to put our house in order. 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. We need to candidly understand why in Kerala and Assam we failed to dislodge the incumbent governments, and why in West Bengal we drew 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 added.
“In view of the nationwide emergent conditions prevailing on account of unprecedented Corona pandemic, the CWC was unanimous that all our energies should be channelised towards saving every life and helping every Covid affected person. CWC, therefore, unanimously resolved to defer the elections temporarily in the midst of these challenging times,” a CWC resolution said.
On Covid management
Sonia Gandhi charged that the“The public health system across the country has all but collapsed. Vaccination coverage is woefully short of need and not expanding at the rate at which it must. The Modi government has abdicated its responsibility. It has obliged the States to bear the cost of vaccinating the hundreds of millions in the 18 to 45 age group. Every expert has said that it would have made more sense and it would have been financially more equitable for the Centre to bear the costs. But we know the Modi government has other priorities, pursuing grandiose projects against the force of public opinion and the face of widespread criticism. It is also a shame that the Central government continues to discriminate against Opposition-ruled states,” she charged.
Another resolution expressed “At a time when the nation’s resources should be devoted to ensuring expansion of vaccination coverage and supply of essential medicines and oxygen, the Modi government is indulging in criminal waste of money by continuing with the personal vanity project of the Prime Minister in the national capital. This is the height of callousness and insensitivity as also an insult to the people of the country,” it said.
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