Lucknow:
It's Day 2 of Rahul Gandhi's Uttar Pradesh poll performance review meeting today. And like yesterday, today too the Congress general secretary will meet Congress MLAs, MPs and central ministers from UP to analyse the party's debacle in the recently-held Assembly polls in the state, where despite him leading from the front, it fared very poorly.
Mr Gandhi reportedly wants to fix responsibility and wants to fix things in time for the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. So he is spending two days in what is called the Congress war-room at Lucknow's Gurudwara Rakabganj Road, a venue where party strategies are formulated and reviewed. Ironically, it's right opposite the residence of former Chief Minister Mayawati's residence.
In the first session on Thursday morning, Mr Gandhi arrived at the venue wearing a white kurta-pyjama. He met with about 50 of the 153 Congress candidates who lost in the UP Assembly elections.
Many of these candidates, sources say, told Mr Gandhi that a weak party organisation at the grassroots level, damaging statements made by senior leaders, a lack of coordination with ministers from UP not considering requests of party workers and late distribution of tickets affected the party's chances.
Mr Gandhi sought their views on a form that they had to fill - he asked them to answer 13 questions, among them were what they thought were the reasons for Congress losing, suggestions on future electoral strategy and how the party could fare better in local body elections. Party sources say some honest feedback was submitted.