On Sunday, the All India Congress Committee served a show cause notice to Jaipur Lok Sabha Congress candidate Jyoti Khandelwal and PCC Secretary Dhoop Singh Punia for publicly speaking against their own party leaders and holding them responsible for the party's defeat in the parliamentary elections.
Both leaders have been asked to send their respective answers in seven days.
While Khandelwal had been openly accused Congress PCC Vice President Archana Sharma and her husband, Somendra Sharma, for plotting a conspiracy against her, Punia, on his Facebook page, spoke against Congress PCC President and Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot's leadership skills.
The Congress leadership in Delhi has taken this quite seriously and immediately issued them show cause notices for having flouted the party's directions to maintain discipline and not to speak on the party's defeat in the public domain.
Earlier, AICC General Secretary and Rajasthan in-charge Avinash Pandey had specifically asked party workers to refrain from speaking on the party's defeat, which was flouted by the two.
The party leadership also launched a feedback mechanism from Monday where the candidates who were defeated in the Lok Sabha elections have been asked to share the reasons for their debacle.
Around 20 candidates have shared their feedbacks and have clearly specified party factionalism as the prime reason behind their defeat. They also accepted that the BJP's micro-management had helped the party to make a strong showing.
The candidates have openly accepted that the strategy chalked out by party has not worked in the face of the well-planned dynamics of BJP. While the Congress remained limited to big rallies, the BJP workers reached out to individual households, which paved way for their win, said a Congress leader in his feedback report.
Pandey will share the report with the Congress high command soon, a senior party leader said here.
( With inputs from IANS )