Congress hits panic button
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It's taken three phases of elections voting in 100 constituencies for the Congress to see the writing on the wall. Alarmed by an internal assessment that shows the Congress has fared far worse than expected and is in danger of being pushed out of the game in the Lok Sabha polls by a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi has stepped in to stem the tide in the 350- odd seats that the party is contesting.
According to top party sources, Rahul has asked Congress managers to deploy central observers in each of the 350- plus seats that will go to polls in the remaining six phases of the elections to galvanise party workers and give a final push to the campaign. Congress sources said the move to deploy the observers came after a strategy session chaired on Thursday by Rahul following feedback from the 91 Lok Sabha constituencies that voted in the third phase, including seven in Delhi. The feedback included the worst- case scenario of the polls becoming a contest between the BJP and other parties like the Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP) and regional players, moving the Congress to the third position.
In Delhi, the Congress is hoping that Ajay Maken would win in the New Delhi seat, thus providing the Grand Old Party with some sort of a face- saver. The sources said internal reports and assessments had indicated a majority of Congress candidates in the 91 seats that witnessed voting on Thursday may lose out to the BJP, which is apparently gaining more from the pro- Modi sentiment among voters and not as much because of the persons it has fielded.
“ We need to pull out all stops now,” said a Congress strategist familiar with the meeting chaired by Rahul. “ The party’s observers will visit each of the constituencies to sense which way the political wind is blowing and will play a role in trying to change it in our favour,” another Congress source told M AIL T ODAY .
A helping hand
According to sources, the central observers will also help candidates in their campaign, and ensure there is cohesiveness among local leaders and workers. The sources acknowledged that infighting in many states could limit the Congress’s electoral prospects. “ The observers will ensure that differences are ironed out,” the Congress strategist said. Sources said in a tough election where each seat counts, feedback from the central observers will be monitored by Rahul’s key aides and woven into a more aggressive campaign in the days to come.
The Congress had recently been buoyed by opinion polls that showed the party and its allies would bag around 120 seats, but internal reports of the poor performance of party’s candidates has the top leadership worried again. The scenario is especially depressing in the national capital, where Congress managers expected that votes of Muslims and weaker sections would return to the party as they were fed up with the AAP experiment.
But Congress managers said the party was still unable to address the widespread public anger in Delhi, where the party was wiped out in the Assembly polls of last December. Some sources expressed fear that the party may not be able to open its account in the Capital though it had won all the seven seats in the 2009 polls. Sources said some hope was generated after two successful rallies in Delhi addressed by party chief Sonia Gandhi and Rahul in the past few weeks. These rallies had given them confidence that minorities and weaker sections were coming back to its fold.
In neighbouring Haryana, where the Congress bagged nine of 10 seats in 2009, the situation is not looking too bright either and the party’s tally may drop to three, the sources said. “ The situation is not as good as 2009, but not too bad either,” a senior party leader said, trying to explain the polling in Delhi and Haryana.
Regional power
Another worry for Congress managers is that the Muslim vote, both in Delhi and in 10 seats of western Uttar Pradesh, appears to be shifting to regional forces and AAP, and this could spoil the party’s chances in the politically crucial state where 70 seats will witness balloting over the remaining phases. Congress sources said if a ‘ Modi wave’ continues to sweep through Uttar Pradesh, it would be difficult to check the BJP prime ministerial nominee’s march towards a formidable position.
HAND- WRINGING SESSION
An internal assessment by the party has portrayed its performance in the ongoing elections as worse than expected in the face of a resurgent BJP.
Feedback from Thursday indicated that the polls might prove to be a contest between the BJP, AAP and regional players, with the Congress pushed to the third position.
Rahul has asked Congress managers to deploy central observers in each of the 350- plus seats yet to go to the polls to galvanise party workers.
Feedback from observers will be monitored by Rahul’s key aides and woven into a more aggressive campaign.