By Rakesh Mohan Chaturvedi, IANS
New Delhi : Soft Hindutva, failure to woo Muslims, lack of state leaders of calibre… Introspecting Congress leaders Monday gave these reasons to explain why the party lost Gujarat – so badly. And some even felt that party president Sonia Gandhi was also perhaps to blame.
As a dejected Congress brass did some brainstorming to submit a report to Gandhi, a day after Chief Minister Narendra Modi led the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to an awesome win, it was clear that the country’s oldest party had been outplayed in every field of the electoral game.
Though Congress leaders have blamed Modi for polarising the elections on communal lines, some grudgingly complained that the “maut ka saudagar” (merchant of death) remark of Gandhi – seemingly targeted at the BJP chief minister – might have triggered the party’s downslide.
“Till the statement was made on Dec 1, Modi was harping more on his development plank, and he wasn’t doing well at all,” a Congress leader told IANS. “Gandhi’s remark started a reaction which could have affected our prospects negatively.”
However, no one actually blamed Gandhi for the defeat.
On the other hand, the 10 mammoth rallies Gandhi addressed in the state were credited with improving the fortunes of the party.
There is also a feeling in the Congress camp that it played a soft Hindutva card – and that undid it.
It fielded only six Muslim candidates, wooed many BJP rebels and gave the ticket to some, pushed former BJP and now Congress leader Shankar Singh Vaghela to the front, and even hobnobbed with BJP dissident Keshubhai Patel to keep the option of forming a government with his support if need be.
Perhaps this explains why Congress won only 11 of the 26 seats in the tribal belt of the state.
Five of its six Muslim candidates won, which many said showed that Muslims did vote for the party. However, the Congress failed to put up more candidates from the community, ostensibly because it did not want to offend the Hindu mass.
While Modi was the sole captain in the BJP ship, different factions in the Congress campaign and election machinery pulled it in different directions. The cadres were disorganised and lacked the spirit to win.
While Modi had his organisational machinery in readiness, the same cannot be said for the Congress. Nobody knew who its chief minister would be – if it won.
The Gujarat Congress had no one who could stand up to Modi. Some Congressmen tried to play the caste card but failed.
Lok Janshakti Party leader and Steel and Mines Minister Ram Vilas Paswan remarked: “The BJP workers had a do-or-die attitude which was acutely lacking in the Congress.”
Some Congress members now feel that the people of Gujarat wanted to leave behind the gory past of 2002 and move on. But the Congress appeared to act as if it did not think so.
Also, Congress functionaries admit that they underestimated the appeal of Modi’s track record as a ruler determined to develop Gujarat on all fronts including power, agriculture and investment.
Modi also managed to present a picture that the Congress was soft towards terrorists. He won wild support as he spoke repeatedly about the execution by the police of Sohrabuddin Shiekh, a Muslim man who was accused of terrorism.
That Modi won in both urban and rural areas shows his hold on the electorate, Congress sources now say.
Interestingly, the Congress remained confident even when the counting of votes started all across Gujarat at 8 a.m. Sunday.
No wonder, Congress leader and Science and Technology minister Kapil Sibal finally conceded that they had underestimated Modi and that the Congress “level of confidence was misplaced”.