Congress Panel Arrives In Gujarat To Evaluate Dismal Assembly Poll Performance

A three-member Congress panel arrived in Gujarat on Monday to evaluate the party's dismal performance in the December polls, which saw the Bharatiya Janata Party winning a record 156 seats in the 182-member Assembly.
        
The Congress got just 17 seats with a vote share of 27.28 per cent, it is the worst performance since the state was formed in 1960, down from 77 seats in the 2017 polls.
        
The fact-finding committee, comprising former Maharashtra leader Nitin Raut and leaders Shakeel Ahmed Khan and Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, was formed on January 4 and has been asked to submit its report to the party within two weeks.
        
"The three-member panel has come to Ahmedabad on a two-day visit starting Monday. They met Assembly election candidates from Ahmedabad and North Gujarat during the day. Tomorrow they will meet candidates from Surendranagar, Morbi, Botad, Bhavnagar, Amreli, Dang, Jamnagar, Tapi, Navsari, Narmada, Valsad, Surat, Kutch, Somnth, Dwarka, Junagadh, and Rajkot districts," Congress spokesperson Hiren Banker said.
        
"They also met some of the candidates who won the elections. The fact-finding committee will visit the state once again and spend 10 days here before submitting their report. The dates of the next visit have not been finalised as yet," Banker added.
        
The two-phase Assembly polls were held on December 1 and 5 and the results were declared on December 8.