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“Its failure to be the first to stake claim to form government was inexplicable.”
At times, with all the wealth of experience it has, the Congress surprises everyone with the mundane. It somehow could not guess that Amit Shah and his team would spare no efforts to instal the BJP in power in Goa and Manipur with little regard for democratic niceties.
Despite emerging as the largest party in these states, the Congress conceded defeat without a fight. While the Congress was reeling from the electoral earthquake in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP was hyperactive in the smaller states, where it was the runner-up. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was making midnight calls to Goa and Manipur. Fence-sitters, including the Goa Forward Party (GFP), which won three seats, were enthralled by Modi, who sought their helping hand. Two of his ministers, Manohar Parrikar and Nitin Gadkari, were in Goa, dexterously dealing with the situation.
What the BJP did was a subversion of the mandate and “a clear murder of democracy”, Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane told THE WEEK. He did not spare his own party either, and blamed central leaders for delays in decision making. “Vijay Sardesai (of the GFP) is a close friend of mine,” Rane said. “He had clearly conveyed to us that he would support the Congress if [former chief minister] Digambar Kamat was made its legislative party leader. Why didn't they do so?”
On the other hand, when the BJP legislators had realised they would not get majority, they had requested Shah to send Parrikar back to Goa. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which won three seats, had said it would support the BJP only if Parrikar was made chief minister.
In the laid-back Manipur, three-time chief minister Ibobi Singh was awaiting orders from the high command, while BJP general secretary Ram Madhav was camping in Imphal, taking quick decisions. He had the mandate to do everything for a post-poll victory, while his counterpart, C.P. Joshi of the Congress, was unconvinced that he was in the northeast, even in the age of internet and mobile phones.
“Shah had gone door to door and earned votes for the BJP. We did not,” said Congress spokesperson Debadatta Singh. The Congress, which had not allied with any party, seemed to have miscalculated. More so, after the results came out. Despite being so close to majority—just short of three seats—it could not get anybody’s help.
“What the BJP has done in Goa and Manipur is its ideology and that is what we are fighting,” said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi. Though his party was decimated in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the polls showed that the Congress was still the only alternative to the BJP. It had wrested Punjab from the Akali Dal-BJP combine. In Goa, it had almost wrested power from the BJP. In Manipur, too, it had almost made it for the fourth time.
However, it failed to keep pace with the new-age power politics of its rivals. Its failure to be the first to stake claim to form government was inexplicable. The party moved with the sluggishness of a century-old.
How does one explain the failure? Perhaps the party's de facto president Rahul Gandhi had a clue when he said: “We need to make structural and organisational changes.” But then, Rahul has been talking of it for a decade.
The Congress was caught off-guard, said a senior leader. It lacked deep pockets as well as the grit and wit of practical politics.
“Rahul Gandhi is yet to learn the practical lessons of politics,” observed a leader. While the elections tell us that the Congress is still the distant alternative, they also tell us that Gandhi remains simple, humble and the beautiful and ineffectual angel of Indian politics.
WITH DNYANESH JATHAR AND RABI BANERJEE
