The Congress today lost Punjab to the AAP and could not manage a comeback in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, reports Asian Lite News
Another set of election defeats for the Congress today confirmed that India’s oldest party is at its lowest point since independence.
In its never-ending nightmare, the Congress today lost Punjab to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and could not manage a comeback in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, where the BJP took comfortable leads despite exit poll predictions of close fights.
In Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP headed for a record win with a landslide, the Congress placed a distant fourth.
The Congress’ hopes in Goa dimmed as the BJP widened its lead early, contrary to exit poll predictions of a close fight.
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi talked about a “revamp and rewiring” after the latest in a series of election debacles for the party since 2014, when it lost power at the Centre.
“If we lose in all five states, then we have to think about a revamp and rewiring for the party,” said Singhvi.
The party was losing at least half of its vote share in Punjab, one of the last big states in its depleting deck.
The Congress’s heavyweights – Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Punjab Congress chief Navjot Sidhu – struggled in their constituencies in what appeared to be an AAP wave.
Wracked by infighting, the Congress went into self-destruct mode in Punjab, replacing its Chief Minister just four months before elections.
Responding to questions about the failure of Congress’s Punjab gamble, Singhvi said the party had taken “strong, maybe unpleasant decisions”.
Another Congress leader, Shama Mohammad, said: “In Punjab, it is our own doing. We could have held on, but we went wrong.”
Team Rahul & Priyanka fail again
The party’s loss has shifted the spotlight on the leadership and the team which was operating behind the scenes, for Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Fingers will be pointed at the teams and leadership of Rahul and Priyanka.
Rahul Gandhi’s team of K.C. Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala and the state in-charges could not deliver the states which went for polls. In Uttarakhand, which had the convention of changing government every five years, the Congress failed to make a repeat. In the beginning state in-charge Devendra Yadav could not manage the factions and later sent senior leaders but precious time was lost in all this. The party appeared to be divided into two sub-parties, who were unwilling to work in tandem.
In Goa the trio of State in-charges — Dinesh Gundu Rao, Girish Chodankar (the state President) and Digambar Kamat (the former Chief Minister) ignored the state leaders like Luizinho Falerio, who left to join Trinamool and leaders like Francisco Sardinha were sidelined and even P. Chidambaram, who was senior observer could not choose the right candidates.
In Punjab, the operation done by Rahul and Priyanka did not deliver the desired results and the last minute gamble played by the party in making Charanjit Singh Channi, a Scheduled Caste Chief Minister did not pay well, and the AAP is heading towards landslide victory. Ajay Maken and Harish Chaudhary have only aggravated the situation in the party by ignoring party MPs during this campaign, which seems to have backfired.
Similarly, Rahul Gandhi team comprising Alankar Sawai, K. Raju, Byju and Kaushal Vidhyarthi along with the political advisors have failed in consecutive elections. The old timers have been ignored. Similarly Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s reliance on Sandeep Singh, Ajay Kumar Lallu and Mona Mishra has failed to deliver.
