Congress Working Committee to meet on Monday

With the party recording its worst-ever electoral performance in Lok Sabha polls, a meeting of Congress Working Committee, its apex decision-making body, has been called on Monday to take stock of the strategy ahead.

The CWC meeting has been convened on May 19 even as questions were being raised over the leadership of Rahul Gandhi as well as the over-all election strategy of the party, besides the performance of the UPA-II government led by Manmohan Singh.

Accepting responsibility for the poll debacle, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi conceded that the mandate in the Lok Sabha polls was "clearly against" Congress and said there was "lot for us to think about".

Special Invitee to the CWC Anil Shastri said that there is a need for a "very serious introspection" about the results and then implement the corrective measures "unlike what was done earlier".

Shastri said that he will be writing a letter to the Congress vice president in couple of days listing the reasons, which, according to him, led to such defeat of Congress.

He said that a number of "mistakes" were committed like giving tickets to people, who joined Congress from other parties.

With several Union Cabinet ministers trailing in their respective seats, many partymen said it reflected the public anger against the government and the disconnect it has with the people.

They also felt that Narendra Modi had outshown Congress in every department of the electoral game through his campaign blitzkrieg.

They were also critical of some leaders close to Rahul Gandhi for their perceived failure to reach out to the people.