Congress poll debacles: 0 state in two years sends CWC into a huddle

NEW DELHI: For two years in a row and in 10 assembly elections, the Congress party has not been able to bring home a new chief minister.

It has lost at least five key young leaders in the recent past, reduced to just two states and its crisis, or inability of winning polls, has stoked defiance and dissent within the organisation. The latest drubbing comes just months before the Congress is set to elect a new president.

The ‘grand old party’ now faces two imminent dangers, said four leaders. “Its leadership space in the Opposition quarters will come under stiff challenge from a parallel formation led by the Trinamool Congress or the Aam Aadmi Party, and within the party, the G23 or the leaders who shot a letter to Sonia Gandhi in 2019 seeking an overhaul, will grow stronger,” said a leader who was part of the poll management.

While the Congress is still grappling on how to take on the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), it has ceded space to AAP in new frontiers such as Punjab on Thursday. Former president Rahul Gandhi said the Congress “humbly accepts the people’s verdict” and added that the party “will learn from this and keep working for the interests of the people of India”. The Congress also announced a meeting of the party’s working committee (CWC) soon to analyse the results.

Notably, it is not the first time the Congress has failed to win a state in a series of assembly elections. Last year too it lost in four out of five states that went to polls, but somehow managed to join the ruling dispensation in Tamil Nadu as an ally of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.

Disgruntled chief Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala hinted at foul play within the party ranks for the poll debacles. “All party leaders must seriously introspect and see if fight over positions and difference of opinion was so strong that it is cutting the tree (Congress) itself.”

He also blamed the anti-incumbency sentiment of four-and-a-half years (Captain Amarinder Singh’s tenure) and said, “We offered the people of Punjab an alternative in the form of Charanjit Singh Channi, but could not overcome the four-and-a-half-year anti-incumbency sentiment.”

While the party won just two seats in the 403 member-strong Uttar Pradesh assembly, the Congress claimed that it was able to “revive Congress at the grassroots”, but “it’s a fact that the determined fight did not get converted into seats”.

The Punjab result has sent shockwaves within the Congress quarters, especially after Rahul Gandhi insisted in his many interactions with party colleagues that the Congress needs to improve its “strike rate” in states where the party is in direct contest with the BJP-led NDA. But on Thursday, the party lost Uttarakhand and Punjab, the two states where it was in a direct contest with the NDA, at least till recently.

But people somewhat saw it coming. According to a senior leader, a functionary had told Gandhi two weeks ago that the manner in which Amarinder Singh was removed was “worse than the decision to remove him just three months ahead of the elections”. He was also told that the decision to hold an internal survey to elect incumbent Charanjit Singh Channi as the chief ministerial face of the party was a “hare-brained idea”.

“The election results show that, more than ever, the party needs a complete overhaul in the organisation and a president who can get votes. Remember, the Congress is not a party accustomed to sitting in the Opposition,” said a second senior leader.

Another leader pointed out that the pressure now piles up on Rahul Gandhi as the party’s vote-gathering abilities are under a serious challenge. “He needs to take a call. The upcoming reshuffle should be substantial, otherwise there’s little chance of a Congress revival,” said the leader.