Antony committee to analyse UP debacle

After interacting with UP MLAs and senior party functionaries, it seems that Rahul Gandhi and Congress Prsident Sonia Gandfhi do not quite see eye to eye. While Rahul wants a total revamp of Congress in UP and wants to begin with a new approach, Sonia Gandhi wants fix the responsibility for the debacle on someone. To this end, a committee headed by  Defence Minister A K Antony has been asked to review the debacle once again.

Antony a close confident of Mrs Gandhi, heads this disciplinary committee. Other members of the committee include Energy Minister Shusheel Kumar Shinde and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit. In the coming two days the committee will meet 28 UP MLAs and 158 party candidates who secured more than 20 thousand votes in Assembly elections.

According to party sources, this committee has been given a clear instructions not to interact with the senior leaders and central ministers from UP. The idea is to get the real picture of what went wrong in elections, and who were responsible for this debacle.

It may be remembered that it was the Antony committee that was called upon to analyse the defeats in the Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh assembly elections in the past. Many seniors in the party had been taken to task in those cases on the recommendation of the committee.

The questions that are flying thick in the party are why this move when the issue has been done with already. According to Pankaj Sharma, Secretary, “The debacle should not be ascribed to collective responsibility. If something went wrong, it has to be found out why.” He does not ignore the possibility of sabotage either.

The real question is, what happened after the second round of voting? Why did so many statements start to come? Why were personal allegations made? A  serious introspection is indeed required and  the Antony committee has been given this task. The committee will submit its report to party high command. The committee will also examine the findings during the interaction meetings with Rahul Gandhi.