Assembly election debacle: Congress Working Committee to meet today to discuss way ahead

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The Congress Working Committee (CWC), the topmost decision making body in the Congress, will meet on Sunday at 4 PM in Delhi at the party headquarters. This would be the first CWC meeting after the party's poor show in the five states that went to the polls recently. The five states are -- Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Goa.

Barring Punjab, the four states were ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party. While the BJP retained power in all the four states it ruled before the polls, the Congress lost Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The grand old party even failed to put up a strong fight in the four states.

Sources said that the Congress leaders will discuss the poll debacle in the five states and the current political situation in the country. Congress' interim chief Sonia Gandhi will preside over the meeting. 

Congress' poor show in the polls once again revived the criticism of the Gandhi family and the demand to hold internal elections. The party had earlier said that it will hold elections in September this year to elect a full-time president. Sonia was appointed as the interim president after her son Rahul resigned from the post following the party's poor show in the 2019 general election.

Scores of senior leaders have been pressing for reforms within the party to enthuse the workers and counter the BJP's growing popularity. 

Yesterday, several leaders from the 'Group of 23 (G-23)' -- a reference to the leaders who had earlier written to Sonia Gandhi wherein they questioned the party's functioning and demanded an overhaul, met at the residence of Ghulam Nabi Azad in Delhi and expressed shock at the party's defeat in the polls. They said that with the disastrous defeat of the Congress in these assembly polls in five states, the party stood further 'weakened and marginalised'.

READ MORE: After poll debacle in five states, Congress' rebel G-23 leaders meet at Azad's residence