After the loss in three Assembly elections, the Congress had to cancel the gathering of INDIA scheduled on December 6, at Delhi. Parties such as SP, TMC, DMK, CPM and also the likes of JD(U) conveyed their unwillingness to attend the meet, thus forcing the Congress to cancel the gathering. After the loss, the allies in INDIA began criticizing the Congress and shooting spiteful arrows. The Congress had been wounded more by these arrows than the actual defeat.
One of the important and thought provocative comment came from the RJD’s national spokesperson Manoj Jha. He said, the Congress’s arrogance is not enough to fight with that of Modi’s arrogance. The comment clearly shows that the Congress has not shredded its arrogance despite losing its charm. And the Congress needs to seriously think about this. After the victorious elections in the state of Karnataka, the Congress did not bother to include the other allies in the INDIA alliance. When Kamalnath asked “Who Akhilesh-Vikhilesh?” to four time Rajya Sabha member and one time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the arrogance of Congress was clearly visible.
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The Samajwadi Party has clearly mentioned that the statement by Kamalnath has angered the Bahujan and Dalits, resulting in Congress losing its votes in the recently held election. The National Conference leader Omar Abdullah has also echoed SP’s stance. Omar has said that the Congress was unable to understand the undercurrents in Madhya Pradesh. What would have been the loss had Congress given 5 to 7 seats to Akhilesh Yadav? And what kind of hailstorm would that have caused? What has the Congress won or achieved? questioned Omar.
Obviously, this needs serious thought. Though the Congress gave full freedom to Kamalnath to fight Madhya Pradesh elections, it is questionable whether his abilities matched that of D K Shivkumar or Siddaramaiah in Karnataka? Who will give a consideration to this? If the Congress cannot make adjustments with allies in local state elections, how will the party tune with every ally in the Centre? This question is being raised by every ally in INDIA. Even Nitish Kumar, who is considered to be the promoter of INDIA, has not spared the Congress. The JD(U) has lamented saying the Congress must now realise that it cannot win the elections on its own. Congress has no other option but to sit quietly and listen. Most importantly, the Congress will be forced to take a soft stand with regards to seat sharing between INDIA members in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls as winability and power of every ally would be evaluated and the party will be held responsible accordingly in the seat sharing formula. Actually, TMC, AAP, SP and some other regional parties had shown interest in seat sharing discussions, but Congress purposely delayed the talks until the elections. The Congress thought that it might win both the big states and thus increase its bargaining power in Lok Sabha elections. But the decision boomeranged on Congress. This happened due to the suggestions of old leaders of Congress who take the voters for granted based on the former’s assumptions.
The Congress kept itself busy targeting Modi, churning the Adani issue, but totally neglected the people and their issues before going to fight the elections. Neither did it participate in any agitation to highlight people’s issues. One cannot get votes by asking Why Modi doesn’t speak in Manipur and stalling the Parliamentary proceedings. For, one must face the people and their issues much before the elections. Did the Congress stalwarts fail or assess the situation? Didn’t they understand the difference between having thousands of participants during the Bharat Jodo and retaining them at the local level? Bharat Jodo was a must for the Congress, hence it happened. The Congress somewhat succeeded in promoting Rahul Gandhi as peoples leader. But having Rahul in one’s heart doesn’t mean the same will be reflected in the voting booth for local candidates. Hence, Congress failed to give tickets to candidates who were in people’s heart.
Raj Thackerey’s public meetings draw huge crowds, but the number is never reflected in votes. Congress must have considered this simple calculation. The BJP on the other hand had studied Congress’s Bharat Jodo and wherever the Congress got a good response, the BJP either allied with regional parties or backed independent candidates to split Congress votes. This resulted in Congress candidates losing the elections with small margins. The Congress, as of now has only three states. Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. This has given rise to a new discussion whether the Congress is the weaker link in INDIA.
