With a major poll debacle staring the Congress in its face, the grand old party of India has now started discussing the relevance of alliance politics and feels it should charter a new course by going it alone in future elections.
The party has also decided to defend outgoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the hilt in case of a “poor” show and create a firewall to shield party vice-president Rahul Gandhi from criticism for the likely electoral setback.
“Senior party leaders were of the opinion that though the Congress ruled two terms successfully with alliance partners, but still the party should think of going alone in future. There is no need to have truck with regional parties in States like Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab and Tamil Nadu,” said a very senior leader present in the meeting. He pointed out that Rahul Gandhi had repeatedly expressed a similar view on alliance politics in the past and the party is likely to consider it for future politics.
The Congress Core Group decided that alliance politics has restricted growth of the party in several key States where regional players have gained at the cost of the Congress. Several leaders stressed that the Congress must revive itself in Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Seemandhra by strengthening the party cadre and going it alone.
“This has to be a long-term strategy and this is the only way the Congress could regain it pan-India character,” said a senior leader. Despite giving the thumbs down to the opinion and exit polls, the party’s audit of the just concluded lok Sabha polls discussed that out of 20 seats in Kerala, the Congress was projected to get between 11 and 14 while in Karnataka, the party is projected to get nearly half of the 28 seats.
The ruling Congress-led UPA was tipped to get between 101 and 148 seats while ‘others’, including regional parties and left, were projected to get between 146 and 156 seats, according to the exit polls, which too came in for discussion briefly.
The core group also discussed post-poll options before senior women politicians like Mayawati, Jayalalithaa and Mamata Banerjee who “have committed themselves to secularism” and have ruled out any tie-up with the BJP. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s party also figured in the discussions since it has denied any post-poll alliance with the BJP.
Those present at the deliberations included party general secretaries BK Hari Prasad, Shakeel Ahmed, Ajay Maken, Janardan Dwivedi, CP Joshi and party leaders Vayalar Ravi, Oscar Fernandes, Rajiv Shukla and Randeep Surjewala.
Sources quoted the party High Command as appreciating the leaders and strategists for contesting the elections at the height of a strong anti-incumbency factor to stop Narendra Modi from becoming the Prime Minister. Sonia is also believed to have expressed that all the senior leaders in future should “always” credit Singh for his able leadership and never should he be blamed for anomalies, if any.In the meeting, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s “able stewardship” was hailed by the Congress which underlined that he had led the country through difficult times. The AICC too praised the Prime Minister on the eve of a farewell dinner for him hosted by Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, senior party leaders and Union Ministers Kamal Nath, Jairam Ramesh and Salman Khurshid distanced Rahul Gandhi from the impending poll debacle following exit poll predictions. Reacting to exit poll predictions of a Narendra Modi-led NDA Government in the making, they sought to suggest that Rahul was never part of the UPA Government and the Manmohan Singh-led Government was not able to convey to the people about its programmes and the work done.
“All this discussion is absurd. Rahul Gandhi is our leader and he will remain our leader in good and bad times,” said Khurshid, the Minister for External Affairs. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh described Rahul as a “indefatigable” campaigner who toured all over the country and said: “Ultimately it is for the organisation to translate whatever positive impact Mr Gandhi or Mrs Gandhi’s campaign has into electoral advantage.”
Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath also rejected suggestions that a likely poor show in the elections will be a reflection on Rahul’s leadership, saying he was never a part of the UPA Government. He said the Manmohan Singh-led Government was not able to convey to the people about its programmes and all the good work it was doing.