HYDERABAD : The Congress high command has formed a fact-finding committee to look into the party’s underwhelming performance in Telangana and a few other states in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
Former AICC Telangana in-charge PJ Kurien will lead the committee with Rakibul Hussain and Pargat Singh as its members.
The main task of this committee is to investigate the reasons behind the party’s underwhelming performance, in contrast to the claims of some top leaders.
Sources said that the Congress high command expected a much better result from Telangana in the Lok Sabha polls where the party had won a comfortable majority in the Assembly elections held just six months earlier. The party had set a target of winning 15 seats but managed to secure only eight, contrary to the projections.
This underwhelming performance allowed the BJP to increase its tally from four seats in the state in 2019 to eight in 2024.
In Telangana, both the Congress and BJP saw gains similar to the national trend leading up to the Lok Sabha elections. However, the perception is that the BJP capitalised by gaining ground in the country’s youngest state.
The Congress high command has also received complaints from candidates like Ch Vamshi Chand Reddy, who alleged that certain Congress MLAs did not campaign effectively during the election. The party believes it could have won in seats such as Malkajgiri, Chevella, Mahbubnagar, Medak and Secunderabad had there been a more spirited campaign from its functionaries.