A majority of Congress leaders said the party will face desertions if Rahul Gandhi does not remain the leader.
The party managed only 52 seats on its own and many of its top leadership, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jyotiraditya Scindia were defeated in the polls.
He said had the alliance with Goa Forward gone through, the Congress would have got majority in the state and that it was unfair to now make him a "villain".
Speaking to reporters after visiting the flood-hit Bhadrachalam town in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, Rao announced allocation of Rs 1,000 crore as a rehabilitation package for the temple town to build colonies in highlands for a permanent solution from flood threat.
The Bharatiya Janata Party replaced at least 25 sitting MPs with new faces as the party released its second list of 72 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls on Wednesday.
Amit Shah wants to increase the party's nationwide vote share by at least 10 per cent from the 37.7 per cent it secured five years ago and ensure above 50 per cent vote share in the states where it came close to that benchmark, but couldn't cross it.
From the 'group of 23' leaders, who had written letter to Gandhi seeking Congress' overhaul, Azad and Sharma continue to be regular members of the CWC,
Sibal, a prominent Opposition voice and a former Congress leader, also said that instead of a common minimum programme, the Opposition parties should talk about a 'new vision for India'.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi will fight again from Varanasi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as it named 34 Union ministers in the first list of 195 candidates.
The Congress protested vociferously both inside and outside Parliament on Monday against the political developments in Maharashtra as it stalled proceedings and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of "murdering democracy" in the state.
Congress leader Jitin Prasada, one of the 23 leaders who wrote to party chief Sonia Gandhi seeking organisational changes, said the letter was written with the sole purpose of suggesting how to reinvigorate and revitalise the party.
On poll eve, both the BJP and the Congress claimed they were headed towards a majority and would form the government.
The party claimed it has the support of the independent candidates also.
Earlier, only Azad was scheduled to meet Sonia Gandhi.
'It is an existential crisis. We cannot recover lost ground through social media. We need to forge alliances and reshape our ideological contours.'
A dominant force in the country's politics for decades, the grand old party's free fall continued as it lost Punjab to AAP and finished with just two seats out of 403 in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh.
The Congress, out of power in UP for 27 years is making a big pitch to bounce back, on a cocktail of caste politics and promises of agriculture debt waiver worth Rs 49,000 crore and power rate reduction for farmers hit by high input costs and diminishing returns., reports Amit Agnihotri.
BJP president J P Nadda on Sunday promised Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and 33 per cent reservation for women in government jobs in Himachal Pradesh while releasing the party's manifesto for the state assembly polls.
Earlier, the BJP governments in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh had announced implementation of the UCC in their states.
The meeting of the Congress Parliamentary strategy group was held at the residence of party President Sonia Gandhi.
Over 6,000 people are feared to have been killed in the devastating floods, cloudbursts and landslides in Uttarakhand in June, the government said on Tuesday.
The Congress and AAP said the logo looks like the party symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
After its resounding defeat in the assembly polls in five states, the Congress on Thursday said the results are contrary to its expectations, but it accepts the people's mandate.
The ambit of the G-23 grouping increased this time as some more leaders -- Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, former Gujarat chief minister Shankar Singh Vaghela, former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and former Haryana speaker Kuldeep Sharma -- joined them.
Will a caste census make tens of millions desert Mr Modi?, asks Shekhar Gupta.
The Congress will hold a chintan shivir immediately after the Budget session of Parliament and the CWC will meet again before that, he told reporters
Governors must be impartial, fair, and above narrow politics to uphold the values and spirit of the Constitution. But in a rapidly changing political culture where the unstated rule is to crush the Opposition, such values have no meaning. At stake are Constitutional values, federalism and governance, asserts Ramesh Menon.
As fuel prices continue its northward march with petrol and diesel being sold at Rs 80.73 and Rs 72.83 per litre in the national capital, at least 21 opposition parties, led by the Congress have staged a Bharat Bandh protesting the rise in fuel prices and depreciation of the rupee.
'There are no jobs, the economy is slowing down, but the BJP is more concerned with issues like triple talaq, anti-Romeo squads and the beef ban.'
One of the G-23 leaders also pointed out that "we are not political tourists" and said the party leadership has to be conscious of "rumour-mongers and naradmunis".
'The Congress has become two distinct parties, one of the durbar, the other of the field and if they keep drifting apart, death is a certainty,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Even if they score administratively, state governments ruled by the party suffer from an inability to communicate positively, say observers.
Rubbishing the allegations, the Uttarakhand CM said that the CD presented was totally fake, adding that efforts were being made to tarnish the image of the Congress-led state government.
'Delhi 2015 is a warning of an intensifying nightmare in the offing.'
The Congress Working Committee, the party's top-decision making body, would soon meet to deliberate further on the Chintan Shivir plans, the sources said.
Though the erstwhile scion of Gwalior and present Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament Yashodhara Raje Scindia only has Rs 15,400 cash in her hand, she owns a dinner set worth over Rs 1.54 crore, according to the affidavit she filed along with the nominations papers in Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.
'Wait for more action the day after (the Friday meeting).'
Congress on Monday appeared to claim credit for effective handling of cyclone 'Phailin', saying all steps are being taken under its rule to make the country "disaster-resilient" which was evident from the Indian Meteorological Department's accurate prediction and "record" evacuation of over one million people in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
Glimpses of the CWC meeting, which was meant to formulate a plan to revive the party from the death throes of electoral irrelevance, but...
The prime minister tweeted: "Pained to know about the passing away of Mrs Suvra Mukherjee. My condolences to Rashtrapati ji & his family in this hour of grief."
