New Delhi, December 6
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting here tomorrow to analyse the Assembly election results promises to be more than an ordinary stock-taking exercise. It could well turn into a battle royal with leaders itching to have a go at each other.
AICC General Secretary Ambika Soni and the three Chief Ministers under whose charge the Congress was routed are expected to come in for sharp criticism. Although Ms Soni sought to blunt the attack by offering her resignation, owning moral responsibility for the debacle, her detractors in the party are unlikely to remain silent.
While Chief Ministers Digvijay Singh and Mr Ajit Jogi may be faulted for their over-confidence and inability to read the public mood accurately, Ms Soni could come in for criticism because she had assumed full responsibility for the elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
The fact that Ms Soni is seen as party President Sonia Gandhi’s closest confidant also makes her a prime target of attack. Ms Soni and the state leadership is likely to be blamed for their poor poll management, poor selection of
candidates, their inability to highlight the achievements of the respective governments and their refusal to go in for pre-poll alliances.
However, the CMs and Ms Soni will give their side of the story and explain reasons for the party’s poor performance. They can be expected to reiterate how the anti-incumbency factor had worked against them.
It is also likely to be pointed out that the BJP’s campaign was better organised as it had used its entire second-rung leadership and central ministers for electioneering while the Congress was dependent only on the party President and its Chief Ministers.
While a detailed analysis of the party’s performance in each state will be undertaken, the preliminary study has thrown up some pointers.
Party sources said the inroads made by the BJP in the tribal belts of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, once a Congress stronghold, is a matter of concern.
The Congress, it is being said, had perhaps, taken the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes vote for granted.
There is a section in the party which believes that the BJP’s success in projecting Mr Ajit Jogi as a “fake tribal” cost the Congress the tribal vote in Chhattisgarh. As for Rajasthan, there is a belief that there was, perhaps, too much emphasis on the management of drought relief as is expected of any government.
