The report of the A.K. Antony committee that reviewed the Congress’s performance in the Lok Sabha election was submitted to party president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday after a two-month, nation-wide exercise of gathering responses from the party rank and file.
Though Ms. Gandhi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took responsibility for the defeat when the election result came out on May 16, by all indications, the Antony report would have opted for collective responsibility instead of pointing a finger at any one in particular.
There was no official word on the findings and Mr. Antony refused to disclose details during an interaction with the media after the Independence Day celebrations at the Congress headquarters here on Friday morning. He, however, said those targeting Mr. Gandhi were only trying to weaken the party. The party, he added, would overcome this difficult phase as it did after the defeat of 1977.
Those privy to the discussions of the four-member committee with party workers and leaders said Mr. Antony himself came in for criticism for failing to stitch up alliances with other parties. He had been asked to explore electoral adjustments ahead of the election.
Admitting that the party was polarised, several Congress leaders maintained it was a passing phase and refused to read the results as a rejection of secularism. “Only a small fraction of the BJP’s 31 per cent vote share can be termed communal, the rest who voted for them were just tired of us and wanted change,” Mr. Antony said.
Part of the battle was lost because of the defeatist mentality shown by high-profile leaders withdrawing from the contest. This was compounded by candidate selection — a perennial problem for the Congress — and the Modi campaign blitzkrieg.
The Congress is hoping that this very blitzkrieg and the expectations whipped up by the campaign will be the BJP’s undoing. “The BJP will crumble under the weight of the expectations it created,” one leader said.
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