2024 general polls: Congress panels to study party's poor performance in Telangana
Hyderabad: The Congress high command on Wednesday constituted a fact-finding committee to assess the party's poor performance in Telangana in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
The committee will be led by senior party leader and former deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha P.J. Kurien, besides Rakibul Hussain and Pargat Singh. The Congress won just eight seats out of total 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, while the target was to achieve 12 to 14 seats.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has set up six committees to assess the party's poor performance in some states, including Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh where the party is in power, besides in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi and Uttarakhand where it drew a blank in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections.
The party's performance in Telangana has come up for discussion as the Congress managed to win just eight seats despite being the ruling party in the state.
The party has put up a good performance in the Assembly elections in Telangana held just six months ago in December 2023 by dethroning the BRS government and forming the government in Telangana by winning 64 Assembly seats out of total 119. Despite this, it could bag only eight out of the total 17 Lok Sabha seats in recent polls.
On the other hand, the BJP which won just eight seats in the Assembly polls had won eight Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, which reportedly has not gone down well with the party high command.
The fact-finding committee will also look into the issues that led to the poor performance of the Congress in Telangana in Lok Sabha polls. While no timeline has been given for the committee to submit the report, the development is giving anxious moments to ruling party leaders.
They fear that the report would impact their prospects in the Cabinet, future cabinet expansions and reshuffles, appointment of nominated posts among others.
