To Review Poll Results Sonia Gandhi Calls a meeting of Congress Top Body

Sonia Gandhi, considering the Congress' weak performance in the recent Assembly elections, said on Friday that the Congress Working Committee (CWC) has called a meeting of the party's highest decision-making body on Monday to assess the grand old party's poll performance in the recent assembly elections. "Unfortunately, our own performance in all the states was very disappointing and if I may say, unexpectedly so. The CWC is meeting shortly to review results...," Sonia Gandhi said at a virtual meet of the Congress Parliamentary Party. She congratulated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, and Kerala's LDF on their victories during a virtual meeting of the parliamentary group.

In the recent polls, Congress failed to come back to power in Kerala and Assam and was wiped out in West Bengal. It also lost out in Puducherry.

In Kerala, the Congress at least held its ground, losing just one seat from 2016 to finish with 41. The Left front registered a commanding win by claiming 99 seats and also bucked a four-decade trend by winning consecutive terms. The BJP received no votes.

The Congress did slightly better in Assam, which had been considered a Congress stronghold before it was violated in 2016. The party won 29 of the 95 seats it contested. However, the opposition coalition was unable to defeat the BJP, winning just 50 seats compared to the ruling party's 75.

In Tamil Nadu, the party was a member of the victorious DMK-led alliance and fared well, winning 18 of the 25 seats allotted to it.

After the NR Congress-BJP alliance won 16 of the 30 seats in Puducherry, where the Congress's government collapsed days before the election, the party was unable to reclaim power.

Both the Congress and the Left failed to win a single seat in Bengal, where they formed an alliance. Trinamool Congress, on the other hand, won the most seats, with 213 to the BJP's 77.

A group of party leaders, including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, and Kapil Sibal, have emphasised the need for introspection over the party's continued poor election results and called for "full-time" and "visible" leadership to move the party forward over the last year.