Sources said the drubbing will dent the influence wielded by senior leaders of the three heartland states in picking candidates in their turfs for assembly and parliamentary polls.
These Congress biggies had pushed their nominees for a chunk of seats in the assembly polls by indulging in brinkmanship but the loyalists were found to perform below par in the saffron sweep.
The Congress screening committees, that shortlisted the candidates, recorded the choices of these big leaders in writing, evidence of they underwriting the claims of their nominees.
Sources said leaders in MP, Rajasthan and Delhi are likely to be questioned hard if they again push for individuals in Lok Sabha elections.
A senior Congress leader said, "Sidelining them in the future ticket allocation is one way of fixing accountability." It is seen as a better way of holding the leaders to account because it is not feasible to hand out any other kind of punishment to the satraps.
Rahul Gandhi has identified selection of candidates as one of the two focus areas to democratize the functioning of Congress and is opposed to the 'quota system' by which senior leaders decide candidates in their fiefs. Now, there are elaborate guidelines for ticket allocation. Post-debacle, sources said the party would strictly adhere to the guidelines.
Strict implementation of the guidelines would hurt the satraps who indulged in brinkmanship to get the better of the screening process.
Madhya Pradesh is emerging as the key villain and its top leaders are under serious scrutiny. While a young leader walked out of the screening committee thrice, a senior leader threatened to pull out of the campaign and managed to push his loyalists in his area of influence. Yet another experienced leader arm-twisted the party in picking candidates across the state.
One major relaxation in guidelines was about the policy to drop 20% sitting MLAs, a policy based on studies that as many sitting legislators lose in every election.
A senior AICC general secretary conceded that the party would have come up trumps in Chhattisgarh if it had done away with some sitting MLAs. Twenty-eight of 39 Congress MLAs lost in Chhattisgarh. The same is true for Rajasthan and Delhi.
In Chhattisgarh, the party compromised because dropping MLAs who won by less than 10,000 votes would have led to the axing of a senior and influential MLA and trying to make an exception for him opened the floodgates. In future, the exceptions would be on a case to case basis, it is said.
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