Facing poll debacle one after the other, the Congress party in Punjab has finally constituted a five-member committee, comprising all party leaders from other states, to examine what led to party’s poor performance and dwindling vote share during recent lok Sabha polls. The Committee has been asked to submit its report within a month.
The Committee has been constituted under former Congress Working Committee member Dhaniram Shandilya, with Haryana Minister Chaudhary Aftab Ahmed as its vice-chairman. Besides, former Delhi Assembly Speaker Subhash Chopra, party MlAs from Delhi — Jaikishen and Devendra Yadav — have been appointed as Committee
members.
As the Committee comprised IJIJall members from outside Punjab, the state’s party unit general secretary lakhvinder Garcha has been appointed to assist it.
The Committee would look into the reasons and circumstances that led to party’s failure to get expected results in the lok Sabha polls in Punjab, the party’s general secretary in-charge for Punjab Shakeel Ahmad told The Pioneer. The party was expecting to improve its tally of eight seats during 2009 polls, to 10.
The results in Punjab as also in several other states have come as a huge disappointment to the party. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has already hinted at revamping the organization, including making structural changes. Also, a day before, senior party leader and member of Congress Working Committee, party’s decision making body, Capt Amarinder Singh had maintained that the party would soon witness major organizational changes.
The 2014 general elections has witnessed Congress’ one of the worst ever performance in the state with its tally of eight MPs coming down to just three. That is not all! Its votes share has also witnessed a huge dip, in a gap of just two years, from 40.11 per cent in 2012 state assembly polls to 33.1 per cent.
Congress’ vote share has come down by more than 12 per cent from 45.23 per cent during 2009 lok Sabha elections — thanks to the Aam Aadmi Party that has taken the major share of votes, that is 24.5 per cent, out of the two major political opponents in the state.
The ruling Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance has managed to bag six seats, with the saffron party securing two.
What is giving sleepless nights to the party leadership was that it finished third in two constituencies — Faridkot and Sangrur. While Faridkot was represented by an Akali MP Paramjit Kaur Gulshan, who finished second in 2014, Sangrur constituency had sitting Congress MP Vijay Inder Singla, whose security deposits has been forfeited. The only solace for Congress in the state was from the Amritsar constituency, where the party nominee Capt Amarinder Singh defeated BJP stalwart Arun Jaitley, despite SAD backing him to the hilt.