BK Hariprasad and Jaydev Jena Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 26: The Congress, which suffered a serious drubbing in the last Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, is going to have an introspection to find out the reasons behind its debacle.

AICC general secretary in charge of the state B.K. Hariprasad has called all district unit presidents, party candidates for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats to the city for discussion. Party sources said he would meet them individually to find out the reasons behind the party’s poor show.

In the last elections, the party drew a blank in the Lok Sabha and its tally in the Assembly came down to 16 from 27. During UPA-II regime, it had six seats in the Lok Sabha.

Several leaders from the state had met AICC president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi and had blamed the state leadership for the party’s poor showing. A section of party leaders had accused the state leadership of distributing party tickets arbitrarily and not providing party funds for the campaign at the right time. There has also been a talk on the change of guard.

Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Jaydev Jena today said Hariprasad would seek the views of party leaders how to strengthen the organisation.

He would meet presidents of the district units tomorrow and later party candidates.

“The internal squabbles within the party, which led to its electoral debacle, may be discussed,” he said.

State campaign committee chairman and former Union minister Srikant Jena had written a letter to the state Congress chief, suggesting to hold an open review within the party over the matter.

He had ascribed three reasons — Modi factor, use of money power by the BJD and roles of two rebel groups the Ama Odisha and the Trinamul Congress — that had worked against the Congress, and above all, surrender of a few self-seekers to chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

Former PCC chief Niranjan Patnaik said he was not informed about the party meet tomorrow and heard from the media.

“Such meetings with a few leaders will not deliver the goods. We should go to grassroots level and involve the cadres,” he said.

“We should learn from Bihar leaders Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar. Our leaders should forget the past and bury their differences in the larger interest of the party,” said Patnaik.

Veteran leader and former MP Anadi Das, in a letter to AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, said: “Hariprasad’s visit will in no way help revive the Congress. A convention of experienced and dedicated leaders of the party should be organised to revive the organisation.”