NEW DELHI: The Congress will set up a fact-finding committee to examine the reasons for its humiliating defeat in the Haryana Assembly polls.
The decision was announced on Thursday after the party’s top brass headed by AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge held a review meeting to deliberate on the “unexpected” results. Former party chief Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, AICC senior observers for the polls Ashok Gehlot and Ajay Maken, as well as AICC secretaries for the state, attended the meeting at Kharge’s residence. AICC in-charge of state Deepak Babaria joined the meeting online.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Venugopal said a fact-finding committee would be formed to examine the reasons behind the party’s poor show in the elections. “The committee will speak with party candidates and leaders to detail the reasons for the unexpected results,” he said.
However, sources said Rahul Gandhi was upset that factionalism among state leaders resulted in party loss. Gandhi made the point that some leaders placed self-interest above the party interest, said the source.
“We held a review meeting on the Haryana election results. The results were unexpected, given the exit and opinion polls. There was a lot of difference between exit polls and actual results. We discussed what the reasons for that. We will take appropriate steps going forward on this,” Maken told media.
Asked if infighting had hurt the party’s chances, Maken said, “There are various reasons, from the Election Commission to internal differences, we have discussed all that and will do so in the future as well because such a big upset...we cannot discuss everything in one or one-and-a-half hours.”
AICCs senior observer for Haryana polls, Gehlot said: “We are taking this loss very seriously. The exit polls and the public in one voice were saying that Congress would form a government in Haryana. We need to go to the root of it”.
A source present at the meeting said a fact-finding committee will be announced soon as is the convention in the party to analyse the results.
The committee will also look into the details of complaints from various constituencies and compile them in a comprehensive manner.
Later in the evening, the office of the Congress president issued a statement saying there have been numerous baseless source-based news circulating in the media. “Following Congress meeting today to discuss the results of Haryana elections, there have been numerous baseless news circulating in the media. Senior leaders had briefed the media after the meeting. We request you to stick to our formal briefing and desist from any conjectures that deviate from the official brief,” a party handout said.
“The party has decided to depute a technical team to look into complaints and discrepancies noted by our candidates. Congress will issue a detailed response based on the fact-finding team’s report,” it said.
