Congress Working Committee to meet soon to discuss Antony poll debacle report

A K Antony had submitted a voluminous report to Sonia Gandhi on Aug 14 after meeting a host of Congress leaders, chief ministers and party workers

The Congress Working Committee CWC the highest decision making body of the Congress is likely to meet soon to discuss the Antony committee report that probed the party's Lok Sabha debacle. Indicating this Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said, "CWC will discuss the report which has been submitted... I am sure that the CWC will meet at the earliest."

Senior Congress leader A K Antony had submitted a voluminous report to the Congress President Sonia Gandhi on August 14 after individually meeting up with a host of Congress leaders, chief ministers and party workers.

The Congress President had set up an informal committee comprising Antony, AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, secretary R C Khuntia and Avinash Pandey,

Asked whether party Vice President Rahul Gandhi's leadership was one of the contributory factors cited for the Congress debacle, Antony a family loyalist had dismissed it recently saying, that it was all "speculation" which was being spread by people aiming to weaken Congress.

It is believed that price rise, Congress's failure to communicate and the media's inordinate focus on BJP's Narendra Modi have been identified in the report as the main factors behind the party's worst electoral loss.

Sources indicate that organisational weaknesses within the party and the inability of party leaders to put up a comprehensive fight have also been highlighted in the report.

Incidentally, this is not the first time that Antony has been tasked with preparing such a report. In the past in 1999, Antony was also asked to look into the reasons for the Congress loss when Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA won the polls.

Prior to that, when Congress lost in the 1998 elections, Sonia Gandhi had appointed a task force under PA Sangma, who was then a Congress member to do a similar task.