'Put our house in order': Sonia Gandhi tells Congress leaders on party's debacle in state elections

She said senior leaders from Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Bengal - the states that went to the polls in April-May - are required to "brief us, very frankly, on our performance..."

In the West Bengal Assembly elections, the party, which had allied with the Left and the newly formed Indian Secular Front (ISF), was completely decimated and could not win a single seat.

In Assam too, which was widely seen as a stronghold for Congress until it was breached in 2016, the party did marginally better, winning 29 of 95 seats it contested. But it failed to challenge the BJP, which returned to power.

While in Kerala, the Congress at least held its ground, losing just one seat from 2016 to finish with 41. The Left front, however, registered victory by claiming 99 seats. The BJP won zero seats.

The party managed to be a part of the government in Tamil Nadu as a result of its alliance with DMK and performed relatively better, winning 18 of 25 allocated seats. It, however, failed to return to power in Puducherry

"We want them to tell us why we performed well below expectation. These results tell us clearly that we need to put our house in order," Gandhi said while making the opening remarks at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's highest decision-making body.

"We have to take note of our serious setbacks. To say we are deeply disappointed is to make an understatement. I intend to set up a small group to look at every aspect that caused such reverses and report back very quickly," she added.

The Congress is also set to discuss internal polls to elect a new President, which has already created a divide between senior leaders over the leadership of the party.

Earlier the party proposed June 23 for the election to choose the party's leadership but the date met with resistance from some leaders.

Eventually, the party decided to delay the elections in view of the pandemic.

Over the past year, senior leaders like Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor and Kapil Sibal have called for "full-time" and "effective leadership" that will be "visible" and "active" in politics.

In August last year, 23 leaders had written a letter to Gandhi representing their concern to her.

The letter had called for sweeping reforms, introspection and "full-time, visible leadership" of a party that has Gandhi as "interim" chief since Rahul Gandhi resigned from the top post following last year's Lok Sabha polls debacle.

Congress later went on to perform poorly in two key states of  Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh and has barely held on to power in Rajasthan, where rebel Sachin Pilot could be pacified after meeting with the Gandhis.

Last year, the party had performed poorly in Bihar too, where elections were held in October-November. The party had allied with the Tejashwi Yadav's RJD, but won just 19 of 70 seats it contested