Waiting for the Congress choices : Reading between the lines in the delay
- Sangai Express Editorial :: March 07, 2014 -

A question of too many to choose or a cleverly worked out strategy to keep the voters and other political parties guessing and then pull out some sort of an ace to catch the other political parties on the wrong foot and catch the imagination of the voters ?

Many things may be read into the delay of the Congress party in announcing the names of their candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election, with the Election Commission of India already notifying that Manipur will go to polls in two phases, on April 9 and 17.

Being the party in power for the third consecutive term, a feat which no other political party has been able to achieve in Manipur so far, it is therefore not surprising why the delay in announcing the names of its candidates has generated so much excitement, giving rise to rounds of speculations, especially in the backdrop of O Joy resigning from the MPP followed by the abolition of the Langthabal unit of the MPP some days later.

This is not to say that O Joy is in the race for the Congress ticket but in politics anything can happen.

Power also comes with its share of headaches and after being in power for the third consecutive term in the State as well as pocketing the two Parliamentary seats in the last election, the Congress has not much to gain but more to lose.

This may be another factor why they are treading a cautious line in coming up with the names of the candidates.

With the Congress leaders, especially Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam publicly stating that the NaMo wave, which seems to be sweeping across a good part of the country, will have no impact here, the task before the Congress is all that more arduous.

It not only has to study the credibility and vote catching capacity of the candidates but it also has to study the strength and weaknesses of the candidates of the other political parties, which have already announced their candidates.

True to its tradition, the final say will come from the All India Congress Committee, but this does not mean that the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee will not have any say in the matter.

This will rests to a large extent on how the leaders and rank and file of the State Congress are be able to put up a united stand before the AICC.

Unlike the BJP and the Left parties and their supporters, the Congress has not gone beyond merely brushing aside the wave generated by Narendra Modi, maintaining a studied silence.

Maybe it was waiting for the other political parties to finalise their list of candidates and then accordingly take a decision after studying the profiles of the others.

This may or not yield dividends, but so far this is what the Congress seems to be conveying.

Now with the Election Commission of India already announcing the election schedule, it will be a matter of sooner rather than later for the Congress to come to a decision and name its candidates.

Will it throw up any surprises or will it tread the same path and name the two present incumbents ?

Hard to say, for the Congress, with all its hyped tradition of the high command having the final say, is not immune to internal politics which may be read as differences within the party.

As things stand today, Chief Minister O Ibobi and Deputy Chief Minister Gaikhangam who also happens to be the president of the Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee are already in Delhi, most probably to finalise the names of its candidates.

Will it go for the tried and tested or will it go along the line of Rahul Gandhi, who has on more than once occasion stated that infusing fresh blood in the party is his priority ?