Obstacles as Congress plans reformation
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: March 17, 2022 -

IT'S not surprising that days after suffering crushing defeats, Congress presidents of the five states, where it lost the electoral battles, have been shown the exit door by party's chief Sonia Gandhi as some effective action was inevitable if the Congress intends to remain as a force to reckon with for the next parliamentary elections.

On paper, the Congress party was better placed to challenge the BJP in Manipur, Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand states, where it was either helming the affairs when the election schedules were announced or had second largest number of MLAs compared to Uttar Pradesh where it contested to simply make its presence felt.

In Manipur, the Congress party's strength in the state assembly has been reduced to just five legislators.

In the previous elections, the Congress emerged as the single-largest party in the state which it ruled for three consecutive terms. Similarly, the party came tantalisingly close to wresting power in Goa before losing out to BJP in the ultimate race.

Of the states where it faced defeat, the thumping victory of Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab is akin to rubbing salt to its wound as it was expected to gain political mileage out of the intense anti-farmers bill movement.

There might be state-specific reasons for the Congress party suffering one of the worst defeats in the recent assembly polls, but the clear mandate given to the BJP in at-least three of the states testifies the scale and spread of the saffron party after its impressive victory in the 2019 parliamentary elections.

For the record, incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi spearheaded BJP to retain power in 2019 with an overwhelming majority, a feat never achieved by any party since Indira Gandhi led the Indian National Congress to a record-breaking electoral triumph in 1971 or the party's 1984 triumph with 300-plus seat score riding on the sympathy wave of Indira Gandhi's assassination.

Along with winning by an unprecedented majority, the BjP vote share in 12 states crossed the 50 per cent mark, including in big states such as Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan while in Uttar Pradesh its vote share was recorded at 49 per cent.

With these state having largest representations in the parliament, the BJP's strength increased and took full advantage of its growing stature to amplify its clout in smaller states as well while at the same time vigorously campaigned to dilute the Congress party.

The end result as of now of BJP's juggernaut is that the Congress has to do some deep soul searching, find fault for the recent election debacle and put in place its revival plan so as to be in a position to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections or compete with regional parties in some states where assembly elections are due ahead of the parliamentary polls.

Nevertheless, the Congress party's reformation or re-organisation plan is already facing objection with some senior leaders pitching for dressing down from the top.

In view of former Union minister Kapil Si ba I expressing that the Gandhis should step aside and give some other leader a chance to lead the party, the Congress party is indeed in deep trouble even before the reformation/ revival plan sets in motion.