Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday engaged five senior leaders to assess the post-poll situation in five states and suggest organisational changes following its electoral debacle, a day after the state unit chiefs were asked to resign.

Rajya Sabha MP Rajani Patil has been asked to assess the situation in Goa, Jairam Ramesh in Manipur and Ajay Maken in Punjab, where the Congress lost power to the Aam Aadmi Party.

Congress leader Jitendra Singh will to asses the post-poll situation in Uttar Pradesh and suggest changes, while Avinash Pandey has been asked to do so in Uttarakhand.

"Congress president has appointed leaders to assess the post-poll situation and suggest organisational changes in the states (with inputs) from MLA candidates and important leaders with immediate effect," an official communication said.

The Congress fared poorly in the just-concluded assembly elections by failing to win back any of the BJP-ruled states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur and losing Punjab to the AAP.

The Congress Working Committee had discussed the reasons for the poll debacle and authorised Sonia Gandhi to initiate necessary changes in these states after the drubbing.

Gandhi Tuesday had asked the chiefs of its Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur units to submit their resignations.

Sonia discusses reasons for poll debacle in Punjab with Congress MPs from state

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday held a meeting with party MPs from Punjab and sought their views on the party's debacle in the just-concluded assembly polls.

Sources said the MPs stressed that infighting and indiscipline led to the party's poor performance at the hustings and this must come to an end.

Gandhi heard the views expressed by the parliamentarians and was learnt to have admitted that some mistakes were made in the state, where the party lost power to the Aam Aadmi Party.

Among the MPs who attended the meeting in the Parliament Complex were Preneet Kaur, Manish Tewari, Ravneet Singh Bittu, Shamsher Singh Dullo, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Santokh Singh Chaudhary and Amar Singh.

Mohammed Sadique and Ambika Soni were, however, not present in the meeting which lasted about an hour.

Incidently, Manish Tewari and Preneet Kaur attended a meeting of leaders of the G-23, which has been critical of the party leadership, later in the evening at Ghulam Nabi Azad's residence.

The MPs, the sources said, are learnt to have told Gandhi that the party must remain united and efforts should be made to bring everyone together to strengthen it further.

They said some MPs blamed the Punjab leadership, including Navjot Singh Sidhu, Harish Rawat, Harish Chaudhary and Sunil Jakhar, for the poll debacle. The Congress could win only 18 seats in the 117-member assembly in the just concluded polls.

Some MPs also said that some leaders proved to be liabilities and infighting between top leaders cost the party dearly.

An MP reportedly told the Congress chief that projecting Charanjit Singh Channi as the Dalit chief ministerial face also did not help and proved counter-productive as other sections got alienated from the party.