The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet is underway to conduct a post-mortem of the party’s worst-ever performance in the Lok Sabha polls on Monday.
The meeting is being attended by outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Sonia and Rahul Gandhi among other tall leaders of the party.
Sources say Sonia may be asked by the CWC to lead the party in Lok Sabha whereas Kamal Nath may be second-in-command.
Instead of Manmohan Singh, AK Antony is being touted as the party’s next leader in the Upper House.
Though directly no one is pointing fingers at Rahul Gandhi, the role of his key advisers including Jairam Ramesh, Mohan Gopal, Madhusudan Mistri and Mohan Prakash is likely to be under the scanner.
As the party searched for answers for its disastrous performance, senior minister Kamal Nath has sounded a word of caution against “patronage politics” and said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should have been more forthright and that the communication was a problem.
A number of Union Ministers may face the ire of party leaders at the meet for their “total lack of communication” with party workers, sources say.
As several Union Cabinet ministers lost in their respective seats miserably, a senior party leader has said that there was a total disconnect of the ministers with party workers and their “arrogance” is to be blamed for the backlash against the party.
While party sources have ruled out reports of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi offering to resign in the wake of debacle, some leaders are raising uncomfortable questions about the party’s campaign and alliance strategy.
Questions have been raised about the style of working of Rahul Gandhi but doubts are being expressed whether any one would make bold to raise them in the meeting to be presided over by Sonia.
An exercise has already begun in the party to insulate him from any blame game. Sonia and Rahul appeared before the media on Friday and took personal responsibility for the drubbing that left the party with just 44 seats in a House of 543, a huge climbdown from 206 seats it had in the outgoing Lok Sabha.
