In 3-day camp, Congress to introspect on Gujarat loss

The meeting will be held in Ahmedabad on December 20-22 and Rahul Gandhi, who took over as party president on December 16, will be present on the last day of the shivir (File)

The Congress will hold a three-day ‘chintan shivir’ to introspect on the reasons behind its failure to reach the halfway mark in the Gujarat Assembly elections, results of which were declared on Monday. In the 182-member Assembly, 92 is the minimum number of seats required to form the government. The meeting will be held in Ahmedabad on December 20-22 and Rahul Gandhi, who took over as party president on December 16, will be present on the last day of the shivir.

State Congress president Bharatsinh Solanki told The Indian Express, “The exercise is being conducted not only to conduct a post-mortem of the party’s performance in this Assembly election, but also to plan for the future.” After the poll results were declared on Monday, Solanki had taken responsibility for the Congress’s loss. He had stated that though the party had not reached the required number to form the government, its performance had been much better than in previous state polls — Congress won 77 seats in this election, 16 more than its tally in 2012.

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Solanki said that because of the mobilisation and hard work by the Congress, the BJP could win just 99 seats in this election. Asked why the Congress failed to win enough seats to form the government, Solanki retorted, “If we could not win adequate seats to form the government, BJP too failed to achieve the target of 150 seats.”

Among those expected to attend the introspection exercise are AICC general secretary and the party’s Gujarat affairs in-charge Ashok Gehlot, state party chief Solanki, senior Congress leaders from the state, MLAs and candidates who lost, all district party presidents and those who prepared the party’s strategies for the polls. Sources said that Rahul is likely to overhaul the state unit and make changes at various levels.