After the Lok Sabha results, Congress has geared up for introspection. Following its second consecutive defeat in the elections, Congress has established separate committees to analyze the reasons for its performance in only 8 states this time. Notably, no investigation committees were set up for Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, West Bengal, and the North Eastern states. Congress omitted forming committees based on what it considered satisfactory results in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand. This marks a departure from its usual practice of forming a single committee; instead, Congress opted for multiple committees for the first time.
Following the significant defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, a committee led by AK Antony was established, after which no further committees were formed. However, this time, amid disappointing election results in Hindi and Southern states, internal questions began to surface within the party. Responding to this, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has tasked leaders from various states with identifying the reasons for the party’s defeat in Odisha, Telangana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, and Himachal Pradesh. PL Punia and Rajni Patil have been assigned the responsibility of investigating the reasons behind the party’s failure to secure any seats in Delhi, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh.
In these three states, Congress was not able to secure a single seat could not win a single seat for the third time in a row. While this time in Delhi, there was an alliance with Aam Aadmi Party. Similarly, Prithviraj Chavan, Saptagiri Ulaka and Jignesh Mevani will find out the reason for not winning a single seat in Madhya Pradesh. Veerappa Moily and Harish Chaudhary from Chhattisgarh, Madhusudan Mistry, Gaurav Gogai and Hibi Eden from Karnataka and PJ Kurien, Rakibul Hussain and Paragat Singh from Telangana will find out the reason for the defeat. The responsibility of Orissa has been given to Ajay Maken and Tariq Anwar. The party has not told when these committees will submit their report. The way the party has formed these committees seems to be just a formality.
In Gujarat, the party has been able to win only one seat this time. While it has not won a single assembly election for two and a half decades and did not open its account in the last two Lok Sabha elections. But There was no mention of Gujarat.
Similarly, in Rajasthan, the party won 11 seats in alliance and lost 13. In Haryana, only five out of ten were won. But these states were left out. The defeat in North East and Jammu Kashmir has also been ignored.
After the Lok Sabha elections, the party president has the pressure to make new appointments within the organization. Kharge has not yet completed the formation of his team, and there are additional challenges concerning the upcoming elections in four states. Leaders such as former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Maharashtra’s Prithviraj Chavan, and Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel are vying for positions in the new team.
