Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday said that the party needed to “put its house in order” after suffering a setback in the Assembly elections, NDTV reported. The results of polls in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry and Assam were declared on May 2.

“We have to take note of our serious setbacks,” Gandhi said in her opening remarks at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, according to the news channel. “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.”

The Congress and the Left were decimated in West Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress won with a tally of 213 of 294 seats. The Congress also failed to defeat incumbent governments in Kerala and Assam. In Puducherry, the party was defeated by the NR Congress-led National Democratic Alliance. However, in Tamil Nadu, the Congress was a constituent of the winning Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led alliance.

Gandhi asked senior Congress leaders from Assam, Kerala and West Bengal to explain why the party lost elections in these states, according to The Hindu.

The Congress president said the party needed to “candidly understand” the reasons for its disappointing performance. “These will yield uncomfortable lessons, but if we don’t face up to reality, if we do not look [at the] facts in [the] face, we won’t draw [the] right lessons,” Gandhi said, according to ANI.

The Congress Working Committee decided to delay the election to the post of the party’s president until the Covid situation improves, according to PTI.

Gandhi had initially sought her party’s opinion on electing a full-time president by the end of June and said that a schedule to appoint a new president had already been decided. However, some senior Congress leaders such as Ashok Gehlot and Ghulam Nabi Azad proposed that it would not be the right time to hold the elections as the situation in the country was very grim.

On Covid crisis

The Congress Working Committee passed a resolution calling the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic “a grave calamity and direct consequence of the Modi government’s indifference, insensitivity and incompetence”, the Hindustan Times reported.

“It is the direct result of the central government’s willful disregard of scientific advice, its premature declaration of victory over the pandemic (that turned out to be just the first wave), and its unwillingness and inability to plan in advance in spite of warnings sounded not only by public health experts but also by the standing committee of Parliament concerned,” the resolution added.

The Congress also criticised the Central Vista project as the prime minister’s “personal vanity project” and added that it showed the “height of callousness and insensitivity” of the Modi government and was an “insult to the people of the country”.

The resolution added:

“The CWC noted with concern that the data on Covid deaths is horribly wrong and afflicted by massive non-reporting of deaths. The solution lies in facing the challenge and stopping the casualties from Covid-19 and not in concealing the truth by burying the data on deaths and infections.

The Congress Working Committee is of the firm belief that this a time for showing an unwavering sense of national unity, purpose and resolve. In order that it may become a reality, the Prime Minister must atone for his mistakes and commit to serving the people instead of carrying on with personal agenda, oblivious to the suffering all around.”

— The CWC resolution

The Congress president criticised the Centre for ignoring the warnings of experts and letting the coronavirus become a catastrophe, according to The Hindu.

“The country is paying a horrendous price for the Modi government’s neglect of the pandemic, indeed its wilful patronage of super-spreader events that were allowed for partisan gains,” Gandhi was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “A far deadlier second wave has now overwhelmed us. Some scientists have now cautioned about a third wave overtaking us soon.”

Gandhi accused the Centre of “abdicating” its responsibility and leaving vaccination to the states, according to ANI.

India is battling a ferocious second wave of the coronavirus. Hospitals in several cities, including Delhi, are struggling with acute shortages of oxygen, drugs and medical equipment.

On Monday, India recorded 3,66,161 new coronavirus cases, taking the tally of infections in the country to 2,26,62,575 since the pandemic broke out in January last year. With 3,754 deaths, the toll climbed to 2,46,116. There are 37,45,237 active cases and 1,86,71,222 patients have recovered from the infection so far.