Our party failed to gauge public mood, says Sonia Gandhi

The Congress chief, who was made the CPP chief for the fifth time in a row since 1998, asked partymen to avoid "public acrimony" saying their inputs, experience and assessment of the party's strengths and weaknesses "rather than public acrimony" will be critical to the exercise to draw the right lessons to put the party back on the rail. She said while all party MPs are "pained" about the defeat suffered by Congress and flagged the need to reflect, deliberate and debate more.