Amritsar: Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday stressed on the need for "introspection" into the party`s debacle at the last Assembly polls and civic body elections in Punjab.
"I was surprised over the Assembly election results in Punjab (in February 2011) as I expected the Congress to win so there was need for introspection as to what went wrong," he said here.
There were certain "shortcomings" which were "overlooked" and which need to be thought about and discussed threadbare, a party spokesman quoted Rahul as having said.
Rahul was addressing party workers and the media was not allowed into the meeting.
Listening to the cadre, Rahul said, he will submit his report to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and whatever necessary steps needed to be taken will be taken.
Making a brief speech, the Congress General Secretary said, he had not come to deliver any lecture on any of the issues prevailing, but wanted only to discuss what was happening within the party.
Starting his two-day tour of Punjab from this city here, Rahul said met party members mainly block presidents, who had come from across the state.
Rahul identified four main points which led to the party`s debacle in the state.
From what the block Presidents said, he concluded that the first reason for the party`s debacle in the state was that tickets were distributed by senior party leaders without talking to grassroots workers, the spokesman said.
Second, he said, tickets were not distributed on time and there was late distribution of tickets. Third, he maintained that the tickets within Dalit sections were not properly distributed.
And fourth, he said, he had noticed the Block Presidents saying that too much nepotism was shown during the distribution of the party tickets and some families got the tickets to their kith and kin.
Among others present on the occasion included the Punjab Congress President Amarinder Singh, Punjab in-charge Gulchain Singh Charak, Jagmeet Singh Brar, Sunil Jakhar, Manish Tewari and Partap Bajwa.
PTI
