Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday identified disunity, indiscipline, sluggish response to emerging situations and the absence of a level playing field as some of the issues that prevented the party from capitalising on the favourable atmosphere after the Lok Sabha polls and converting it into votes in Maharashtra and Haryana elections.

The integrity of the election process came into question and under scrutiny at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting in the capital on Friday. However, Kharge resisted the temptation of finding fault only elsewhere and papering over the inherent organisational issues the party has failed to address for years, particularly factionalism.

The Congress adopted a resolution stating that the entire electoral process was being "severely compromised".

The party has in recent years repeatedly demanded a return to the ballot paper — a view articulated recently by veteran Maharashtra politician Sharad Pawar and long held by the Trinamool Congress despite repeated successes at the hustings on EVMs.

"The CWC believes the integrity of the entire electoral process is being severely compromised. Free and fair elections is a constitutional mandate that is being called into serious question by the partisan functioning of the Election Commission. Increasing sections of society are becoming frustrated and deeply apprehensive. The Congress will take up these public concerns as a national movement,’’ the resolution stated.

On the contours of this movement, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the party would go to the people with this issue and hear them out, recalling how the Bharat Jodo Yatra was used to pick up the issues dear to the masses to be reflected in the party’s agenda.

"The party must keep reinforcing its narrative. This includes caste census to ensure full social justice, removal of the 50 per cent ceiling on reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs, control of growing monopolies in the economy through political patronage, price rise and growing unemployment," the resolution stated.

Kharge underscored the need to give state-specific issues their due place in election campaigns. "Every state has a different dynamic and we need to be clued in to this to build a proper campaign around these state-specific issues,’’ he said, conceding the failure of the Congress to match up to the agility shown by the BJP in plugging the loopholes that dealt the saffron party a body blow in the Lok Sabha elections.

Kharge in his opening remarks called for tough decisions without spelling them out but dwelt on factionalism and indiscipline within the party’s rank and file. Factionalism has festered in the party for so long that the Congress is seen as a master at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory as was evident in the Haryana Assembly elections.

Conceding the weaknesses in the organisation, Kharge stressed the need to strengthen booth-level management from the time of preparation of electoral rolls till the last vote is counted. "We need to improve our micro-communication strategy and find better ways to fight propaganda and misinformation," Kharge said, warning that fascist forces are gaining strength because of the Congress’s failure to defeat them.