IANS/New Delhi
The Congress Party yesterday downplayed electoral defeats in Haryana and Maharashtra, saying such developments were part of the democratic process.
“Winning and losing is part of democracy. Our party has always maintained that we should neither go overboard on victory nor despair on a defeat,” Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala said here.
He said there was no dissent as far as party vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s leadership was concerned. “The faith of crores of Congress workers is in Rahul Gandhi. They have never had any doubt regarding his leadership.”
Surjewala said it was Priyanka Gandhi’s personal decision to limit her political activity to only Amethi and Rae Bareli, constituencies represented by her brother Rahul and mother and Congress president Sonia respectively.
He said the Congress fought a good election in Haryana.
“We fought a good election in Haryana. In that state no party had been voted to power consecutively for two terms, but we were successful in getting two consecutive mandates,” he said.
Surjewala said the Congress will “introspect” the poll outcome and reach out to “newer sections” wherever that was paramount or necessary.
The party was trounced in both states.
Analysts say the election results made its revival even more difficult as the party has been defeated in the states that had been its traditional strongholds. The Congress finished third in both states.
The results once again raised questions on Rahul Gandhi’s leadership with no clarity yet about the party’s roadmap for restructuring. They also revived demands for giving a more active role to Priyanka, highlighting the party’s dependence on the Nehru-Gandhi family.
With the party having received severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress leaders were not expecting a miracle in the assembly election in the two states but the results were below their own assessment.
The Bharatiya Janata Party made impressive gains in both states.
While BJP leader and Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned aggressively in the states addressing about 35 rallies, Sonia and Rahul participated in fewer rallies.
The defeat came at the hands of Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, who have been talking about “Congress-free” India.
A worrying factor for the Congress is the party’s inability to gain ground in the states where it has lost election to the BJP. The Congress has lost successive polls to BJP in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.
The results also resulted in Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) - a key former ally of the Congress - virtually joining hands with the BJP. The NCP has offered outside support to the BJP and ended scope of an early realignment with the Congress. The NCP had parted ways with the Congress days before the assembly polls.
The BJP is not only seeking to displace Congress from its strongholds, but is also trying to gain opposition space in states ruled by regional parties.
Reduced to 44 seats in the Lok Sabha, the Congress is facing challenge of shrinking social base. The party also has to contend with Modi’s growing stature as a campaigner and a national leader.
