When countered during a media interaction couple of days ago and specifically asked about number of seats the party would secure in the Assembly polls in Jharkhand, Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed sidestepped the question. He instead expressed “confidence” over “satisfactory” show by the party but with an obvious pain for unable to forge an alliance with the JMM.
Fighting alone, the Congress is no where near to its best confidence level thanks to old disease such as factionalism, personal coteries and opportunist leadership. Cadres are getting a sense of being ignored for the sake of petty politics.
“The decision makers here are indulged in selling out tickets and giving it to their near and dear ones. You would be surprised to know that Congress nominee from Panki Bidesh Singh has not joined the party yet formally! He was made candidate by Rajendra Singh (Congress legislative Party leader of Jharkhand) just to boost his own acceptability,” said a senior leader of the party.
Similarly ex-MP Subodh Kant Sahay is said to have put his foot down for the persons close to him and played decisive roles in finalising candidates for Ranchi, Khijri, Kanke and few others.
Confusion within the party is so high that even after ticket distribution work is over in all the parties into fray the Congress replaced two of its declared candidates from littipara and Jama constituencies three days before the scrutiny of the nomination papers officially because of some pending cases against them. Worse came on December 4 when its ‘candidates’ from Nala and Sarath seats were disqualified as they could not present party symbol in time after naming Congress as party in their affidavits.
Tall claims of the party leaders apart, insiders and poll strategists are of the view that Congress’ tally would not reach beyond six this time which is the halfway mark what it had managed in2009 polls after fighting it together with the JVM.
lowered chips seem to have taken its toll on the party central leadership. “We and JMM are fighting separately as the understanding could not been reached. Whoever would be the strongest candidate in a constituency, the Congress candidate would work for his defeat. Anyway we believe that there would not be any need to go into coalition after the results and Congress would secure majority,” added Shakeel. In the House of 81, the party is contesting only on 67 seats.
Also, the party has been focusing entirely on the 180 days of BJP Government in power at the Centre while keeping quiet on affairs in the State throughout the election campaign. “It is because the top BJP leaders like the PM or party chief Amit Shah is raising national issues in their speeches here. Our leaders are also doing this to counter the BJP,” said State Congress chief Sukhdeo Bhagat.
While Bhagat denounced any kind of confusion over candidates’ selection and role of personal coteries into it, it is learnt that not touching upon Jharkhand issue is like a safe passage for the party, equally culpable for running Governments by proxy.