Congress stunned by Maharashtra’s defeat
Despite this, Jharkhand’s victory is being seen only as a small achievement compared to the horror of the crushing defeat in Maharashtra. The gloomy atmosphere at the Congress headquarters after these election results reflects this disappointment. This is the reason why despite Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s landslide victory in Wayanad, that kind of enthusiasm was not seen among the workers. The victory of the JMM-led alliance in Jharkhand also shows how these days Congress is able to sail through only with the strength of regional parties.
Why is the main opposition party not waking up?
The question is why Congress does not seem to be coming into action mode despite continuous defeats? The Congress high command appears to have a fixed structure, where nominated officials dominate. The party may be getting some relief because of the Gandhi family, but in competitive electoral politics, the defeat in Maharashtra has once again raised questions on the effectiveness of the ‘Gandhi-Vadra charisma’.
Where is Congress making mistakes?
In the Lok Sabha elections held this year, Congress gave its best performance in the last decade by winning 99 seats. However, questions have been raised regarding this also because this was the third worst performance of Congress in the Lok Sabha elections. In this, Congress won most of the seats which were fought against anti-BJP parties. If we talk about Wayanad seat Rahul Gandhi After this, now Priyanka Gandhi has won the by-election here. However, Congress leaders also see Priyanka’s choice of reserved seat of Wayanad as a shortcoming.
Rahul Gandhi’s strategy failed?
The way Rahul Gandhi campaigned in both Maharashtra and Jharkhand, even the local Congress leaders felt like a ‘stuck record-player’. This is because it was still stuck on issues like ‘Save the Constitution’ and ‘Caste Census’. However, the elections in both these states were fought mainly on local issues, social equations and strategic changes after the Lok Sabha elections.
How BJP did charisma in Maharashtra
Where BJP and RSS coordinated their election campaign. Tried to stop caste division through slogans like ‘If we divide we will be divided’. Capitalized on the anger of the OBC community against the Maratha reservation movement and promoted welfare schemes like ‘Ladki Bahin’. On the other hand, Rahul Gandhi, like earlier in the Rafale campaign, remained stuck on issues like ‘Constitution’ and ‘Caste Census’.
This is how Hemant Soren made his/her way to victory
In contrast, the Hemant Soren-led campaign in Jharkhand focused on welfare schemes for women, strengthening tribal unity and garnering sympathy against the BJP’s ‘infiltrators’ issue. Rahul Gandhi campaigned for only five days in Maharashtra and four days in Jharkhand, but spared three days for Wayanad. Maharashtra’s ‘United Congress’ now seems to be scattered like Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar).
Every attempt of Congress failed in Maharashtra
At present, Congress spokespersons are defending Rahul Gandhi’s election campaign style even in extremely difficult circumstances. While celebrating victory in Jharkhand and Wayanad, he/she raised questions on the credibility of Maharashtra results. Maharashtra elections also failed Rahul Gandhi and Uddhav Thackeray’s strategy of making ‘Adani’ an election issue. First he/she gave the slogan ‘If Adani and Modi are one then we are safe’ and then promised to remove the Adani project from the Dharavi redevelopment plan. Along with this, an attempt was made to increase the distance in Maharashtra-Gujarat.
Congress will be weak in India block!
The Congress-led opposition is preparing to raise the allegations leveled against Adani in America in the upcoming Parliament session. But whether the Maharashtra defeat will sap their energy and unity to sustain their campaign remains to be seen. Even in the assembly by-elections, Congress’s performance has been much worse than BJP. Apart from winning all three seats in Karnataka and retaining one seat in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress’s performance in Rajasthan, Assam, Punjab and Gujarat has been disappointing. In this way, another election year of Congress is ending without any significant achievement.