AP by-poll debacle: Cong to appoint fact-finding panel

The Congress in Andhra Pradesh on Monday decided to appoint a fact-finding committee to go into the party's poor performance in the recent by-polls.

The party has also decided to hold district-level review meetings to gear up the party machinery for the future. The fact-finding committee, to be appointed soon, would study the reasons for the party's poor performance and also suggest ways to strengthen the party, state Congress president Botsa Satyanarayana told reporters tonight after a meeting of the party's coordination committee in the state.

Union Minister and All India Congress Committee in-charge of party's affairs in Andhra Pradesh Ghulam Nabi Azad, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, the Pradesh Congress Committee president, actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi, senior Member of Parliament K S Rao, former state Congress president D Srinivas and former minister Mohd Ali Shabbir are the members of the coordination committee.

However, Azad did not attend the meeting on Monday.

The party would organise district-level meetings from June 21 to 30, in which all public representatives, including MPs and members of Legislative Assembly, would attend to discuss the party's position and ways to strengthen the party, Satyanarayana said.

These meetings will be followed by grass-root level meetings from July 1 to August 15 to rejuvenate the party, he said.

The meeting discussed how to take the welfare and development schemes of government to the masses and also countering criticism of opposition parties, he said.

Asked whether the meeting has identified the main reasons for the party's poor show in the bypolls to 18 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha constituency, the PCC president said the sympathy generated in favour of YSR Congress, following his arrest in an alleged disproportionate assets case and the power cuts and drinking water problem during summer, hike in price of petrol were found to be the principal reasons for the poor performance of the party.