LS poll rout: Congress to discuss Antony report soon
20 Aug 2014 6:04 AM IST
‘CWC will discuss the report which has been submitted... I am sure that the CWC will meet at the earliest,’ said party spokesperson and former commerce minister, Anand Sharma.
Speaking at an AICC briefing here, Sharma, however, declined to give a date for the CWC meeting.
The much-talked-about report of the Antony panel was submitted to congress president Sonia Gandhi on 14 August. Comprising, apart from Antony, AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, secretary RC Khuntia and Avinash Pandey, the four-member panel was set up a fortnight after the general election results were declared on 16 May.
The outcome came as a huge shock for Congress, whose presence in Lok Sabha was reduced to 44 MPs, a massive drop from the 206 seats it had won in 2009.
Sources have maintained that the report has not faulted party vice president Rahul Gandhi’s leadership for the debacle and has instead identified price rise, loopholes in Congress’s communication strategy and the media’s focus on Narendra Modi as the main factors behind the drubbing.
Senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, too, has said that the media was ‘one of the contributory factors’ behind the slide in Congress’s fortunes in the Lok Sabha polls.
The report is also said to touch on the lacunae in Congress’s campaign, organisational weaknesses within the party and the inability of middle-level leaders to rise to the occasion.
Responding to a query on whether there was a question mark on Rahul’s leadership after the elections and if the committee had suggested something along those lines, Antony, a few days back had said that it was all ‘speculation’ which was being spread by people aiming to weaken Congress.
The Antony panel began the review exercise in June and has met PCC chiefs, CLP leaders and other party functionaries from With Assembly polls approaching in four states, the Antony panel report is expected to help the Congress leadership take remedial steps.
Speaking at an AICC briefing here, Sharma, however, declined to give a date for the CWC meeting.
The much-talked-about report of the Antony panel was submitted to congress president Sonia Gandhi on 14 August. Comprising, apart from Antony, AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, secretary RC Khuntia and Avinash Pandey, the four-member panel was set up a fortnight after the general election results were declared on 16 May.
The outcome came as a huge shock for Congress, whose presence in Lok Sabha was reduced to 44 MPs, a massive drop from the 206 seats it had won in 2009.
Sources have maintained that the report has not faulted party vice president Rahul Gandhi’s leadership for the debacle and has instead identified price rise, loopholes in Congress’s communication strategy and the media’s focus on Narendra Modi as the main factors behind the drubbing.
Senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, too, has said that the media was ‘one of the contributory factors’ behind the slide in Congress’s fortunes in the Lok Sabha polls.
The report is also said to touch on the lacunae in Congress’s campaign, organisational weaknesses within the party and the inability of middle-level leaders to rise to the occasion.
Responding to a query on whether there was a question mark on Rahul’s leadership after the elections and if the committee had suggested something along those lines, Antony, a few days back had said that it was all ‘speculation’ which was being spread by people aiming to weaken Congress.
The Antony panel began the review exercise in June and has met PCC chiefs, CLP leaders and other party functionaries from With Assembly polls approaching in four states, the Antony panel report is expected to help the Congress leadership take remedial steps.
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