Senior party spokesperson P C Chakoo also warned leaders going public, saying there are enough forums within the party to discuss all suggestions related to improvement of party functioning.
With senior leaders such as general secretary Digvijay Singh calling for a "major surgery" to overhaul Congress structure, the party on Friday said its highest decision making body the Congress Working Committee (CWC) will meet soon, possibly next week to take stock of suggestions by party leaders in the wake of defeat in the recently concluded five state assembly elections.
Senior party spokesperson P C Chakoo also warned leaders going public, saying there are enough forums within the party to discuss all suggestions related to improvement of party functioning.
"Digvijay Singhji and all of us will have the opportunity to attend the highest forum of the party, and there everybody is free to express their opinion," he said. In his tweet, Singh had asked for "major surgery" and a "major overhaul" in campaign strategy and social media, and also "fresh faces and fresh ideas".
Chakoo said the CWC may also decide about the next AICC session, which is overdue for two years now. Last AICC session was held in January 2014.
While announcing a detailed discussion on the reasons for electoral defeat at the CWC, the party leaders, shielding top leadership – Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son vice-president Rahul Gandhi -- say the overall performance of Congress was much better than the BJP in terms of the outcome of the two pan-India parties.
While the BJP could win a total of 64 seats (60 in Assam, 3 in West Bengal and 1 in Kerala), the Congress fared much better with a total tally of 115 seats (26 in Assam, 44 in West Bengal,, 22 in Kerala, 8 in Tamil Nadu and 15 in Puducherry), they said. Armed with statistics, they also said Congress had polled 31% votes in Assam despite losing the election whereas the BJP which will be forming the government in its place won with lesser percentage of votes -- 29.5%.
The Congress polled 23.7% in Kerala as against the BJP's 10.5%, 12.3% in West Bengal against BJP's 10.2%, 6.4% in Tamil Nadu as against BJP's 2.81%, and 30.6% in Puducherry as against BJP's 2.4%.
Sources in Congress admit that the party is now reduced to be in power in just seven states, six of them small ones, but it still has an overall larger footprint across the country that will come into play next year when the elections are held for the post of the President of India. Karnataka is the only big state under its rule that will go to polls in 2018. Other tiny states/Union territories to have the Congress chief ministers are Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram and now Puducherry.
Uttarakhand and Manipur will be going to polls early next year with Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, while Himachal Pradesh is due for polls in November 2017. Mizoram and Meghalaya have polls in 2018. Since last Lok Sabha elections in 2014, the Congress has lost 10 states, including Delhi. The BJP and its allies were able to form the governments in six states while the Congress did not get to win even one. All bigger states, barring Karnataka, are today ruled either by the BJP or the regional parties. One of the biggest losses for the Congress after the 2014 elections was Maharashtra where it had ruled for 15 years, losing almost half the seats it had won in 2009.
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