Seemandhra Congress leaders to review poll debacle

Coming to terms with the unprecedented poll debacle, Congress leaders in Seemandhra have decided to hold a brainstorming session in Vijayawada some time in June to take stock of the situation and review the results of general elections.

Meeting for the first time after the election results were announced, APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy, former PCC chief Botcha Satyanaryana, campaign committee chairman K. Chiranjeevi, manifesto committee chief Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, chief spokesperson Rudraraju Padmaraju and former Minister Vatti Vasant Kumar attributed party’s poor showing to a series of factors.

Sources said the leaders during the interaction, it was felt that the UPA–II government’s policies and the series of scams haunting the Manmohan Singh regime cast a shadow on the party’s performance. It is understood that the leaders said if anti-incumbency factor caused immense damage, bifurcation of the State angered the voters so much so that they voted the party out of power. They felt that the party could not counter the allegations that Congress alone was responsible for the division of State.

Leaders vowed to revive the party in a phased manner. As a first step the party plans to ask the candidates and the 13 District Congress Committees to hold preliminary review meetings at the district level and review the performance. Later, PCC and DCC office-bearers along with the candidates would attend a brainstorming session in Vijayawada. AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh spoke to the APCC chief and said party vice-president Rahul Gandhi may attend the Vijayawada meeting.

Party seniors decided to revamp the district and mandal units and bring vast changes in the functioning of the party committees. It also decided to go slow on the disciplinary action against the district, mandal and village level leaders hoping that they would return to the party fold.

The meeting expressed serious concern that the party’s vote share dropping to an abysmal 2.5 per cent in Seemandhra. The overall vote share of the party in Telangana and Seemandhra stood at 13 per cent as against 31 per cent in earlier elections. The Congress secured only 10.50 lakh votes in Seemandhra as against 2.81 crore votes polled, which only showed its pathetic show.