With Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee chief Mehmood Ali Kaisar announcing his decision to quit owning responsibility for the party's debilitating defeat in the assembly elections, the heat is on AICC General Secretary Mukul Wasnik who is state charge to similarly own up and resign from his post.
However, Wasnik appears to feel no such obligation and has not even offered to put in his papers.
Post Bihar results, the ripple effects are visible in next-door Uttar Pradesh. Congress President Sonia Gandhi had gone to Allahabad for a public meeting to celebrate the party's 125 years where senior congressmen launched an attack on Mukul Wasnik.
In the presence of the Congress president, ex-MP from Varanasi Rajesh Mishra launched a scathing attack on party leaders saying that tickets were sold in Bihar and that this led to the defeat of the party candidates in many places.
The 125-year-old Congress cannot survive if tickets and posts are sold, an angry Mishra said, alleging that the same was happening in the Uttar Pradesh where the AICC and PCC membership were sold leading to the wrong kind of people becoming members.
There was a huge uproar after he spoke, as there were many consenting voices. The Congress president just sat quietly and listened.
Congress leaders say that after the huge drubbing received by the party in Bihar, this is just the beginning of what is in store.
At the AICC plenary to be held on December 18-19-20, Congressmen are expected to raise the issues taken up by Mishra, particularly Congressmen from Bihar.
Most partymen from Bihar are expected to attend in a militant mood, as most old timers were ignored and kept on the sidelines, while the entire election process and campaign was run by outsiders.
Sources say there are serious charges of corruption, mismanagement against Mukul Wasnik with a number of leaders from the state sending him SMSes asking him to step down after the defeat.
While the Congress is expected to probably set up yet another committee to analyse the defeat, party leaders say that the Bihar fallout would be serious for the party in not only Bihar but in neighbouring states like UP, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa, where the party is anyway perched rather precariously.
While Nitish Kumar has emerged as a national level leader, who can fill the vacant space of old time socialist leaders, Rahul Gandhi has been the biggest loser with the media going to town saying the Rahul magic had failed and that he had been over-estimated.
The main question being asked by Congressmen is how big is the damage to Rahul's image and credibility, as he had addressed over 50 meetings in Bihar and whether he could recover from this drubbing.
Sources say that Sonia going to the AICC office on election result day and speaking to the media was a bid to protect Rahul and in the process back Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which she had not done till now.
It is learnt that the Congress president was earlier told that party would win around 35 to 40 seats -- the figure was whittled down to 15-20 in the days preceeding the elections. But the figure of 4 appears to have come as a shock to the party leadership.
In fact, Congress's performance is so poor that well wishers are looking for some conspiracy.
There is no doubt that the old guard of Congress will have a tough time whenever Rahul takes full charge of the party.
Congress leaders selected wrong candidates. Many of them are facing criminal cases.
Out of the 243 seats in the state, 134 outsiders were fielded in key constituencies, leading to Congress workers working against the party with a vengeance.
As the party comes to terms with its worst-ever performance, there is likely to be a great deal of reaction on the party's style of functioning and the fact that the real power has become concentrated in the hands of a few people, leading to everyone either towing their line or being shown the door.
