Better leader-workers connect, more discipline needed: Antony panel

It has also urged more discipline in the party organisation as steps to improve the party's prospects in forthcoming electoral battles, the sources said.

The sources said that the panel which went into reasons for party's poor performance in Uttar Pradesh, its loss in Punjab and Goa and unimpressive performance in Uttarakhand, suggested that chief ministers, state unit chiefs and leaders in assembly should be more accessible to party workers.

The report, prepared by an three-member panel which also included Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, has been finalised, a party leader said.

Party sources that organisational weaknesses, controversial and confusing remarks by some senior leaders and wrong distribution of tickets had been identified as reasons for the party's poor performance in Uttar Pradesh.

Party general secretary Rahul Gandhi had toiled hard for the party's success in Uttar Pradesh but the Congress could not do well even in Gandhi family pocket boroughs of Amethi and Rae Bareli.

The Congress will face Bharatiya Janata Party as the main adversary in assembly polls later this year in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. u00a0