After Assembly Elections-2023 debacle, Congress High Command took a Review Meeting of the four states, where the Congress lost assembly elections. The Congress President Shri Mallikarjun Kharge and former Congress President Shri Rahul Gandhi chaired the meeting. It was held at the AICC Headquarters in New Delhi on December 8-9, 2023.

Chhattisgarh

AICC General Secretary Kumari Selja said that everyone did the review and expressed their views about this election quite clearly. It is true that we lost the elections but at the same time I would also say that any survey be it your national media or regional media or any agency, everyone had said that we are going to win the elections in Chhattisgarh and to some extent, you were proved right because our vote percentage did not decrease much, our vote percentage remained the same as compared to last time, which is significant.

Maintaining the vote percentage after being in the government for five years is a great achievement and that is why we were confident that the work done by our government under the leadership of Kharge ji, Rahul ji, Sonia ji - We have seen the results of the excellent schemes that our government has come up with following all the guidelines with the support of Priyanka ji - we have gained the trust of the people. We had a trustworthy government and we also won the trust of the people. We lost the elections and could not form the government. We are surely disappointed but not disheartened. Lok Sabha elections are in the line, all the friends have assured that we will fight elections together again, we will contest elections in Lok Sabha. Even our people performed well. So, detailed analysis will be done keeping all these things in mind. As far as women are concerned, this is the first time that we have brought so many women to power in the opposition. Since we are in the opposition now, that is why we are saying this. Tickets were given to 18 women, out of which 11 women have won. Similarly, there was some weakness in some areas and in some places, we got a lot of support. The farmers and the poor have supported us. Wherever we feel that there are some shortcomings, we will now rectify those shortcomings in the times to come. Do not think that once this election is over, our work is over. Our friends, our workers, our leaders will go everywhere and to every corner and will increase the confidence of the people again and we will win more and more seats in the Lok Sabha.

Madhya Pradesh

AICC General Secretary Shri Randeep Singh Surjewala told the journalists that all the leaders and secretaries of the Party shared their experiences regarding the elections. The reasons for the defeat were discussed with great openness. Where did we fall short in winning the hearts of Madhya Pradesh, in winning the hearts of the people of Madhya Pradesh? There was introspection, analysis and discussion on this with an open heart.

Congress President and Rahul ji listened to everything in detail in a cordial atmosphere. They also gave us some suggestions regarding the future and now we have left the further decision to Congress President HonorableKharge Ji to guide us as to how the organization should be formed, how should the organization be taken forward and we requested him to quickly appoint an observer for the Legislature Party meeting so that the next leader of the opposition can be decided after taking the opinion of the MLA colleagues and we get involved in serving the people of Madhya Pradesh.

Humbly joining hands to the eight and a half crore voters of Madhya Pradesh, I would only say on behalf of the Indian National Congress that we will protect your rights like a vigilant watchman. Be it our tribal brethren, our friends from backward classes, our Dalit friends, the poor, the youth, women - the many promises made by the Bharatiya Janata Party, we as a watchdog will ensure that they are implemented both inside and outside the Assembly. And every time there is injustice done against even one person, Congress workers and Congress leaders will stand with that person from Madhya Pradesh.

Be it our farmer brothers, our poor brothers, youth or women. We accept your decision with our heads bowed and accepting that decision, we will continue to play the role of the opposition which the Congress Party has been ordered to play.

Mizoram

Shri Bhakta Charan Das, In-charge Bihar, Manipur & Mizoram, AICC; Pu Lalsawta, Mizoram PCC President and Shri Sachin Rao, In-charge for training and Congress Sandesh addressed the media on December 9, 2023.

Shri Bhakta Charan Das In-charge Bihar, Manipur & Mizoram, AICC said- We had the review meeting of AICC on Mizoram election. We held discussions of every aspect of the election… the organisational structure of the state at the grass-root level and at the state level, and different events that happened during the election… what has happened and what we are going to do in future. All those things we discussed very carefully and intensively; there was presentation of the factual position over there.

The presence of Bharatiya Janata Party, the ruling party in centre, was negligible in Mizoram earlier but they have tried their best to come indirectly. They had the alliance with MNF earlier, but the MNF Chief Minister declared that if the Prime Minister would come to Mizoram to address the public meeting which was scheduled, but he didn’t go... but the Chief Minister declared that because of Manipur issue, because the Hon’ble Prime Minister did not visit Manipur till now… so, he will boycott the Prime Minister’s meeting, he will not sit on the dais… that’s why they changed their approach from MNF to ZPM. The ZPM… whatever victory they have got today… they are against the mandate. The people of Mizoram wanted to vote, and wanted to vote for ZPM and Congress Party against MNF and BJP because of the Manipur issue. But the ZPM silently connived with the BJP because of the continuous visit of a series of BJP Ministers from centre, their MPs and their leaders from different parts and the presence of Assam Chief Minister again and again. That implies that they had solid backing for ZPM and many sort of instrumental things they approached, they adapted in the election… and this is the result. We are not disappointed with that. The BJP as a party with a communal character entered into Mizoram through ZPM… that is the most unholy thing for the interest of the North-eastern state. And that much I will have to say, but Congress is going to do much better in the coming Parliament Election in Mizoram.

Shri Sachin Rao, In-charge for training and Congress Sandesh said- The Congress Party has always represented the interests of the minorities of India, and especially in Mizoram. And we fought a campaign that was meant to unite Mizoram and the rest of India. We fought hard; Shri Rahul Gandhi’s visit was an incredible event. We took the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ to Mizoram, the response of the people on the streets was amazing. And we were very confident, and not just us… I should point out that pretty much every media outlet, every survey, and everyone else was quite convinced that the Congress would be in a very strong contention.

The results were disappointing. We have to figure out how; but as Shri Bhakta Charan Das Ji mentioned, there is absolutely no doubt in our minds that the BJP is attempting to enter the North-east, where the BJP knows its ideology will not directly work. What it is trying to do in all of these North-eastern states is to create proxies that under the guise of good governance or some other façade… they can enter the North-east and disrupt the politics and the social fabric. And the Congress is committed to fighting that at any cost. We will be back, we will be back stronger. And we are very optimistic about the Lok Sabha prospects there.

Rajasthan

Shri Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, In-charge Rajasthan, AICC, said - There was a long discussion among all of us in the meeting and the difference between our vote share is less than that of BJP and many candidates lost our votes by a thin margin. There are also such candidates whose difference is less than 1,500 - all of that was discussed and also, we have told them from today itself that we will prepare for the Parliament and wherever we have any shortcomings, we will rectify them and fight the elections unitedly. And in the last election too, you could see that the entire Congress was united. And in one voice the entire Congress contested the elections there. Our booth level or Divisional Presidents or other Block Presidents and District Presidents did a lot of work, Congress workers also worked very hard for that. I thank them too and even our leaders said today that we should prepare for the Parliament from today itself. We have to fight and tell people that we will come out victorious.