Post LS poll debacle, NC's core group holds retrospection meet

SRINAGAR: Ruling National Conference in Jammu and Kashmir today held a retrospection meeting of the party's core group here - a first such meet after the Lok Sabha elections in which it recorded its worst performance.

"A core group meeting was held under Farooq Abdullah to analyse the results of the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections," sources in the party said.

They said the meeting was attended by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, cabinet ministers and senior party leaders.

The meeting looked into the reasons for the worst-ever-show by the party in its electoral history and decided on the future course of action in view of the assembly elections scheduled later this year.

"It was decided to take feedback from the party activists on the reasons of the poor show in the elections and to chalk-out future strategy," the sources said.

The meeting of the district and block presidents will take place tomorrow, they said, adding the party will introspect to see what went wrong.

"There will be deliberations and some measures will be taken to ensure the party performs better in the coming (assembly) elections," the sources said.

The sources said the old-guard in the party has tightened its grip on the party affairs with the senior Abdullah, who is also the party president, taking the centre-stage.

"There may not be a face-lift in the party, but the old-guard for sure will have the grip on the party now and doctor sahib (Farooq Abdullah) will take all the decisions," they said.

The sources said the party was of the view that the coalition government should last its full-term and take some "concrete and populist" measures to gain the lost ground.

The party impressed that the government must focus on its developmental agenda and more particularly towards the youth of the state.

The meeting also decided to start the process of selection of candidates for the assembly elections soon, so that they get some time to build in their respective constituencies.

"Hectic deliberations for the process of selection of candidates have started and the process would be completed in three to four weeks," the sources said.