Unlike K’taka, CG polls will be a tough ride for Cong

Yogesh Mishra

Raipur, May 11, 2013

Congress is effervescing after Karnataka victory. Though it was an anticipated result, the Congress leaders are giving all credit to their vice president Rahul Gandhi despite knowing that his presence in Uttar Pradesh assembly polls last year did not make much difference to party’s dismal performance. With Chhattisgarh going to assembly polls in the offing, state Congress unit too pins hope on Gandhi to turn the tide in party’s favour. However, unlike Karnataka, the party will have tough ride in Chhattisgarh because while former’s result was based on political disturbance, the latter’s outcome will depend on contending parties’ capability to win public acceptance.

In Chhattisgarh, there is no Yeddy (BJP’s former Karnataka CM BS Yeddyyurappa) factor that Congress could cash in on in polls. In fact, despite Congress’ allegations that chief minister Raman Singh is directly involved in several graft cases including Pushp Steel matter, the BJP’s national leadership has by far shown full faith on him. 

Yes! The CM looks alienated as his government’s much-hyped vikas yatra does not seem getting adequate support from the party as was announced before its commencement, however, it could also be termed as BJP’s cautious move after Congress alleged that the ruling party wanted to take political mileage from the yatra. 

Of course, everything is not okay in BJP, but it happens with every party that completes two full terms at the helm. Factionalism has by far not been a major threat to the party’s integrity as despite nurturing their personal ambitions, the senior BJP leaders think of party first during polls. So, the Congress is least likely to get advantage of BJP’s internal politics. Rather, as compared to Karnataka, BJP in Chhattisgarh is stable. 

Contrarily, Congress is fragmented. Infighting is at its peak in the party. There are half a dozen factions and equal number of chief ministerial candidates in the party. The state unit president Nandkumar Patel has completely failed to earn trust of different factions. The dissidents, instead of going to him for solution, prefer putting their stance before party’s national leaders. Some even claim to have direct link with party supremo Sonia Gandhi.

In Congress, every senior leader behaves like a party chief. Patel, on the other hand, seems heading only a handful of workers. He looks helpless before senior leader Ajit Jogi who invariably goes against partyline and organises events and meetings across the state. Patel also poses silence when party MLA Badruddin Quraishi wages war of words against him, AICC treasurer Motilal Vora and CLP leader Ravindra Choubey. A disciplinary committee does exist in the party but is non-functional since its constitution. 

Nonetheless, the party is confident of coming to power in Chhattisgarh this time. Hence, it has announced to finalise candidates three months prior to polls. There are 90 assembly constituencies in state. For every constituency, there are 10-15 aspirants in the party from different factions. To pick right candidate, the national leadership is conducting survey, though it is less likely to be accepted by all. 

So, will the party, which has history of selecting candidates on basis of recommendations, suddenly adopt a new method of screening prospects? Of course not, at least not in Chhattisgarh. The idea of survey is given by Rahul Gandhi for transparent selection of candidates, but if the state leadership would fail to tell him about the repercussions of application of his formula, no wonder Congress would have to face embarrassing polls debacle. 

The party is presently taking out parivartan yatra and door-to-door campaign in state. A couple of party’s national leaders have addressed public rallies under parivartan yatra. However, it is expected to bring Rahul Gandhi before the crowd. In fact, Gandhi needs to give more time to Chhattisgarh if state unit really wants to keep the morale of its workers high and take advantage of anti-incumbency factor in polls. The presence of Gandhi would also check further polarisation in party and the factions would remain in discipline.