The Janadhipathya Samrakshana Samithi (JSS) party centre was convened at the residence of party general secretary K.R. Gouri here on Thursday to review the party's performance in the Assembly elections.
The centre, which was continuing late into the night, discussed the defeat of all four JSS candidates — Ms. Gouri at Cherthala, party president A.N. Rajan Babu at Karunagapally, K.K. Shaju at Mavelikara, and Umesh Challiyil at Kaipamangalam.
According to sources, senior party leaders expressed doubts whether JSS candidates got the expected number of votes from the United Democratic Front (UDF), and the Congress in particular.
The demoralising defeat of Ms. Gouri in Cherthala, where the margin was over 18,000, came in for thorough analysis. Many feel that though a few local Congress leaders had worked with Ms. Gouri, the votes polled did not tally with the figures of previous elections and even in UDF strongholds in the region.
The party centre is also learnt to have restricted senior leaders from making public statements on the party's internal matters, more so in the background of a section of the electronic media airing reports that a couple of senior leaders and candidates had blamed Ms. Gouri's anti-UDF stance for the poll debacle.
None of the centre members said to have found fault with Ms. Gouri's stance, with some stating that Ms. Gouri had done and said what any party leader should have.
The meeting began at 3 p.m.
