Goa Congress leaders to explain poll defeat to Antony

Panaji, April 10 (IANS) Top Congress leaders from Goa will be summoned to New Delhi to meet the high command later this week for a post-mortem of the party's thumping loss in Goa, a top Congress official said Tuesday.

State Congress president Subhash Shirodkar said the party's state unit had also prepared a list of reasons for the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party's defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition in the March polls.

"Me, (state working president Francisco) Sardinha, (leader of opposition Pratapsing) Rane, (former power minister) Aleixo (Sequeira) and (former chief minister Digambar) Kamat may have to go to Delhi later this week," Shirodkar said.

The top Congress official said that the team from Goa would depose before the three-member committee formed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to assess the party's humiliating losses in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Goa.

"We have drawn up a list of our own reasons, which we will also be placing before A.K. Antony, who will head the three-member committee," Shirodkar said.

"The reasons of the loss will be studied and the report will be sent to the Congress president or Rahul Gandhi," Shirodkar further said.

On Monday, Sardinha told reporters that the policies of the Kamat-led government as well as the failure of the government to deliver on several crucial issues could have led to the party's loss in the March polls.

"So you want me to say our government made mistakes? Yes, otherwise how would our party get out of power," Sardinha said.

The Congress which was heading a coalition government in Goa from 2007 and had 21 seats in the 40-member house, had its tally reduced to nine seats in the March polls. The BJP won a simple majority of 21 seats, while its alliance partners won five seats, taking the tally of the ruling alliance to 26.

The NCP which had three seats in the 2007 polls failed to win a single seat in the elections.