The demand was voiced before the Congress introspection committee headed by A K Antony which began its two-day exercise of eliciting opinion of party leaders from southern states at Gandhi Bhavan here on Tuesday.

Party state unit presidents from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Podicherry and Andaman and Nicobar islands besides several senior leaders, district unit presidents, MLAs, MPs and unsuccessful candidates were among those who descended on Gandhi Bhavan.

The panel consisting of Mani Shanker Iyer, P M Sayeed, Jagdish Tytler, Moti Lal Vohra, Nirmal Khatri, K A Sangtam, Prithvi Raj Chauhan and Santosh Choudhary reviewed the party's poll performance in the four southern states besides Andaman and Nicobar islands. The party's performance in Andhra Pradesh will be taken up next.

In aninformal chat with mediapersons, TNCC general secretary and AICC member E V K S Elangovan demanded that Ramamoorthy should be replaced immediately. He said that people of Tamil Nadu were averse to an alliance with All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and alleged that Jayalalitha ensured the defeat of some senior Congress leaders. Elangovan was also of the view that the party leadership should persuade Moopanar to join Congress.

Former Congress MP C Narsimhan felt the need for revamping the party from the grassroot level to the top to strengthen it in the State. "The disrespect shown by AIADMK chief Jayalalitha towards Sonia Gandhi has led to confusion among the party cadres and we failed to convert the pro-Congress wave into votes," he observed.

However, senior party leaders from the State attributed the defeat in the recent elections to the party's inability in project AICC president Sonia Gandhi as party's prime ministerial candidate.

Speaking to mediapersons, Ramamoorthy said thatCongress suffered reverses at the hustings due to the split caused by TMC and "internal sabotage". He refused to attribute the defeat to Congress party's alliance with AIADMK. Describing the meeting of Sonia Gandhi with TMC chief G K Moopanar as a "welcome sign", he said that Congress would have fared better had it been successful in its efforts to forge an alliance with TMC.