New Delhi, Jan 16 (IANS): Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of party leaders from Kerala next week to discuss the upcoming Assembly polls in wake of the setback the party received in the recent local body polls, sources said.

The leaders called include former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, state President M. Ramchandran and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ramesh Chennithala. The Congress in the state is pitted against the ruling Left Democratic Front, but not making headway despite the anti-incumbency factor, due to its internal rifts with factions led by Chandy and Chennithala scrambling for supremacy, party insiders say.

The divisions in the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) came out in the open in December after it faced a rout in the local body polls despite performing well in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

After the poll debacle, Ramachandran, Chennithala and Chandy had said that the party will introspect. Congress MP K. Sudhakaran and other state leaders had lashed out at the state Congress leadership and said democracy needs to be reinstated in the party. "We need to reinstate democracy inside the party. The party should bring in leaders who can instill confidence in the minds of party workers and civil society. Then we can save the party," Sudhakaran had told the media.

The Congress allies, including the IUML, had asked it to examine why it did not do well in the polls.