Amid war of words among party leaders, Congress’ Special Committee to meet today

After facing defeat in Bihar assembly elections and by-elections, a meeting of the special committee to assist Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi is going to take place on Tuesday.

According to information received from sources, there will be a meeting at 5 pm through video conferencing but its agenda is not clear.

This meeting is taking place at a time when the issue of review in Congress has been emerging after the defeat in the elections. Kapil Sibal, one of the 23 Congress leaders who wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi a few months ago to demand reforms in the party, has demanded a fresh review of the defeat, after which he has come under fire from fellow Congress leaders.

From Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to Delhi Congress president Anil Chaudhary, Congress leaders are targeting Sibal for raising questions.

Amidst all this, the meeting of Sonia Gandhi’s advisory committee is giving rise to a lot of speculation. In August, a Special Committee was formed to assist the interim president of the Congress, Sonia Gandhi on organisational and operational matters.

Ahmed Patel, KC Venugopal, AK Antony, Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala are its members. The important thing is that due to ill health, Ahmed Patel is admitted to the hospital. Despite this, questions are being raised about whether a new storm is coming inside the Congress.

The Congress is being blamed for the defeat of the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) in the recently concluded Bihar elections. In the Mahagathbandhan, the success rate of RJD and the Left parties was more than 50 per cent whereas the Congress could win only 19 seats out of 70 seats it contested.

Congress got only nine seats out of 28 in Madhya Pradesh by-election. The Congress could not win a single seat in the by-elections in two assembly seats in Karnataka and eight assembly seats in Gujarat. Congress performance was also disappointing in UP where Priyanka Gandhi is in-charge.

RJD leaders have also raised questions over Congress party’s attitude towards Bihar Assembly polls. RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari has taken on the party leadership saying that they didn’t pay heed to the campaign as many senior leaders like Priyanka Gandhi, former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and even Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi didn’t turn up for the poll campaign.