​ The Congress brass on Friday held separate meetings to review the party’s losses in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, and sought a detailed report from state unit chiefs on its dismal performance in the recent round of assembly elections, party leaders said.

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The Congress won only one state – Telangana – of the five states that went to the polls last month. The grand old party lost its governments in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, and failed to dislodge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh. It also failed to win the polls in Mizoram.

The party is scheduled to hold another meeting to review its losses in Rajasthan on Saturday.

This round of assembly elections was seen as a virtual semi-final to the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, given that it was the last major electoral exercise before next year.

On Friday, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge chaired the separate meetings, at the party headquarters in Delhi, which was also attended by party leader Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders.

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Party general secretary K C Venugopal said the state Congress chiefs were instructed to submit a booth-wise report on the performance. “We will strengthen our connection with the people and unitedly fight the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to unseat the BJP government,” he said.

In a post on X, the Congress said: “Today, a meeting to review the election results of Chhattisgarh was held at the Congress headquarters in Delhi. Senior Congress leaders, including Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, were present in this meeting.”

AICC general secretary in-charge for Chhattisgarh, Kumari Selja, said the state unit is dejected but not demoralised, and would together contest and win the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The party has not lost its vote share, she said, adding that it would carry out a detailed analysis on the electoral performance in the coming days.

“Today a review meeting on the Chhattisgarh election results was held, where everyone expressed their views. We lost the Chhattisgarh elections, but our vote percentage has not reduced. We have gained the trust of the public,” she said.

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Congress leader Randeep Surjewala, who was made in-charge of Madhya Pradesh, told reporters after the meeting that the poll loss in the state was discussed in a cordial atmosphere.

“We openly discussed the reasons for the party’s defeat and leaders analysed the shortcomings of the party within the forum,” he said.

“The Congress president heard us patiently. All the leaders authorised him to take a decision on how to strengthen the organisation. We urged him to hold a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party in Madhya Pradesh and appoint an observer for its next meeting to enable it to elect the new leader of opposition,” he added.

(With agency inputs)