As Congress prepares to launch an ambitious membership drive to start a resolute fight against the Modi government's policies, a status report of its major state units shows the Grand Old Party must first defeat its enemies within: Chronic factionalism, inertia and confusion over organizational matters.Eight months after its rout in the LS elections, factional bickering and inaction remain its biggest weaknesses in most major states. In fact, these caused the party further humiliating losses in subsequent assembly and local body polls in many of these states.Rahul Gandhi's plans to reorganize the party have run into stubborn resistance from senior leaders in states such as UP, Rajasthan and Punjab. And there seems to be little effort to address the malaise of a communication gap - one of Congress's weakest spots in the LS poll campaign. Embarrassingly for Rahul, Sonia Gandhi's office overruled his restructuring plans for the UP unit and cleared a mammoth 402-member executive on Tuesday. This, despite his insistence on small and accountable state executives. He'd rejected the UP PCC's proposal before the CWC meet, asking it to prune the members to 250.Possibly to address factionalism, the leadership adopted a 'keep-everybody-happy' approach, ignoring the cap on state-executive size Rahul favoured. This went against Rahul's plan to reform the Congress machinery. The new in-charge of UP Congress's communication unit, VN Madan, justified the jumbo executive. "UP is a very large state. For the party's revival, we needed an all-inclusive group spanning all castes and religions," he told TOI.Elsewhere, it's not just Rahul's organizational overhaul plan that's run into resistance. His appointees face rough weather, rivals blocking efforts to revive the organization. This is most evident in Punjab, where his handpicked chief Partap Singh Bajwa is locked in intense battle with Amarinder Singh, the party's deputy leader in the LS. So much so, they've announced separate rallies against the Badal government on January 22. Singh wants charge of PCC. He's reportedly told Sonia that under Bajwa, Congress victory against the SAD-BJP combine in the 2017 assembly polls would be difficult to achieve. Singh hosted a luncheon show of strength in Patiala, where he claimed support of 35 of Congress's 44 MLAs. Bajwa hit back in an interview to Economic Times, saying: "There's no need for a separate rally. That'll confuse supporters and demoralize workers."Like Bajwa, another Rahul appointee, Rajasthan party chief Sachin Pilot too is on a difficult pitch. The party here is divided between Pilot followers and those of former CM Ashok Gehlot. Congress's LS poll disaster was mirrored in the recent municipal polls. Gehlot locked himself in his hometown, Jodhpur. Sources said the leaders hardly worked together during the campaign. It looks grim for the party in the ongoing panchayat polls.Rejecting Pilot's restructuring plan, Gehlot said: "Those who left out should be inducted because when the party is not in power, responsibility to keep everyone together increases." Pilot retorted: "We've appointed a large enough PCC."Congress units in most states seem to have learnt no lessons despite many attributing the party's successive assembly poll routs to factionalism. Only last week, Maharashtra's ex-CM Ashok Chavan complained that internal differences had proved fatal in the assembly polls. "Groupism needs to be curtailed," he cautioned. The problem of faction fighting in Maharashtra now looms large over the Brihan mumbai Muncipal Corporation elections. Congress looks clueless on tackling the Shiv Sena challenge. The party's central leadership is still to decide on a replacement for Manikrao Thakre who quit as state chief in October taking responsibility for the assembly polls rout. The anti-Prithviraj Chavan lobby, in the forefront before the state polls, remains just as active.Elsewhere, party units look listless. Indecision and inertia are common in the MP, TN, Andhra and Telangana units. Take MP. The PCC's indecision gave BJP a cakewalk in the first and second phases of the civic elections. The ruling party won all nine corporations. Even for the January 31 phase, Congress has missed the deadline for filing nominations. PCC chief Arun Yadav remained virtually incommunicado during this period and repeated AICC attempts to contact him failed.The TN, Telangana and AP units are in disarray. In AP and Telangana, Congress continues to lie low months after defeats in both states. In AP, last week leaders N Raghuveera Reddy and Chiranjeevi emerged in public when they toured the new capital region near Vijaywada, expressing solidarity with farmers facing displacement. Privately, AP Congress netas say the road to recovery is long and arduous, and repair work could stretch till 2019. The scene is no different in Telangana. There's virtually no activity at party headquarters Gandhi Bhavan.TN Congressmen seem to have learned no lessons even after former Union minister GK Vasan split the party in November. Karti Chidambaram, P Chidambaram's son, challenged new party chief EVKS Elangovan rubbishing his efforts to revive the party invoking Congress icon K Kamraj, known for his corruption-free administration in the 1960s. "How will a 21-year-old connect to Kamaraj rule," asks Karti, stressing that development and employment are bigger issues.(With inputs from Hyderabad, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Chennai, Lucknow & Mumbai)