Top Congress brass reviews poll defeats in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh

The Congress on Friday held 'post-mortem' of its election losses in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh with senior leaders putting their heads together to find the reasons for their rout in both the states and a silver lining from the voting pattern ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

Madhya Pradesh leaders have left it to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to make a decision on the leadership in the organisation and the legislature party. This indicates that the state president and the party's Chief Ministerial face, Kamal Nath, may be on his way out. However, there has been no official word on Chhattisgarh regarding how the party is going about changes in the organisation.

Sources earlier said there would be "drastic changes" in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. The meeting with Rajasthan leaders will be held on Saturday.

Sources said Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi, who cancelled his South East Asia tour, minced no words on the performance of the party in separate meetings with leaders of both states. The meeting was also attended by Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal and Treasurer Ajay Maken among others.

Congress General Secretary and Madhya Pradesh in-charge, Randeep Surjewala, said they were "disappointed" with the results, and a review of the results was conducted in a "friendly" atmosphere. He mentioned that Kharge has been entrusted to "guide" them on state leadership. Surjewala also stated that Kharge has been requested to send observers to the state to initiate the process for choosing the legislature party leader.

Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh and Govind Singh were among the leaders from Madhya Pradesh who attended the meeting.

The central leaders first met with those from Chhattisgarh, including former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, former Deputy Chief Minister TS Singhdeo, and state chief Deepak Baij, to review the party's performance. General Secretary and state in-charge Kumari Selja was also present.

The party sought to project a brave face, with Selja finding a positive note in the Congress managing to hold on to the vote share it received in 2018. She emphasised that they were disappointed with the results but not in despair.

She mentioned that a detailed review of the reasons for the loss would be conducted but insisted that not a single survey had predicted a defeat for the Congress. "After five years in government, we have managed to hold on to our vote share. This is not a mean feat," she told reporters after the meeting.

The party will specifically study the vote margin in seats to help prepare and plan for the Lok Sabha elections. She did not comment on whether there was any move to change the leadership in the state. Selja also emphasised that 11 of the 18 women the party fielded won the election.

"Today a review meeting related to the election results in Chhattisgarh was held, where everyone expressed their views. We lost the Chhattisgarh elections, but our vote percentage has not reduced. We have gained the trust of the public. We are disappointed, but not in despair. In the coming times, we will fight the Lok Sabha elections together," she said.