Congress Working Committee to meet on Sunday to discuss party's poll debacle

New Delhi, Mar 12: The Congress' top decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee will meet on Sunday at 4 pm to discuss to discuss the party's performance in the five recently-held Assembly elections.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi will chair the meeting of the top decision-making body. The meeting comes after the Congress' poor performance at the hustings as it lost Punjab to the AAP and could not win any of the four other states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

Reportedly, in the meeting, it is likely to advance internal elections scheduled in September amid renewed questions about its leadership.The party's poor performance is bound to pose a serious challenge to Rahul Gandhi's leadership, as he and his sister and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were the only star campaigners seen in this round of assembly polls.

"One thing is clear -- change is unavoidable if we need to succeed," Tharoor tweeted on Thursday night.

"All of us who believe in Congress are hurting from the results of the recent assembly elections. It is time to reaffirm the idea of India that the Congress has stood for and the positive agenda it offers the nation and to reform our organisational leadership in a manner that will reignite those ideas and inspire the people," he said.

The leaders of G-23, who have been demanding an organisational overhaul, had met Friday evening at the residence of senior leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to evolve their strategy ahead of the crucial CWC meeting.

Sunday's meeting is likely to see some fireworks from the G-23 as they had suggested corrective measures after the last round of assembly polls, when the party lost Puducherry and failed to make a mark in Kerala, Assam and West Bengal, but there had been little movement on that front.

A dominant force in the country's politics for decades, the grand old party's free fall continued as it lost Punjab to AAP and finished with just two seats out of 403 in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh. The party also lost in Uttarakhand and Manipur.

After the drastic decline in its tally in general elections, it is now left in power only in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and is a very small player in the coalition governments in Maharashtra and Jharkhand.