Even as the Central leadership of the Congress is trying to put up a bold face with regard to the party’s prospects in the lok Sabha election, in context of various opinion polls predicting a terrible setback for it, party spokesman PC Chacko has admitted that the national situation is not in favour of the party.
“I should be truthful. The Indian situation is not in favour of the Congress. We are facing an adverse situation. What the result of this situation will be…It is unpredictable,” Chacko, who was chairperson of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G Spectrum scam, said in Kochi during an election-related interaction with journalists. He said that the possibility of Congress sitting in the Opposition could not be ruled out in the present circumstances. Chacko, Congress candidate in Kerala’s Chalakkudy constituency, said one of the reasons behind his decision to contest the election was that the party should have good parliamentarians if its destiny was to occupy the Opposition benches.
There had been a failure in reaching the many good initiatives the UPA Government had done to the people, Chacko said, adding that the Opposition and a section of the media had succeeded in taking ahead their negative campaigns against the Government. The leaderships of the party and the Government had failed in putting up effective defence against these campaigns, he said.
One of the prime reasons for the party’s setback was the unwillingness of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to meet the media when such interactions were needed, Chacko said. The Prime Minister’s silence had led to various interpretations, he said. The party and the Government had failed in effectively countering allegations of corruption, he complained. There was a general understanding in the party that the Prime Minister should meet the Press on a regular basis but this understanding was not adhered to, said Chacko, adding that it was high time there was a generational change in the Congress and that it would be good for the party to sit in the Opposition rather than being in power in the present situation.
The fast-occurring political changes were making predictions impossible, Chacko said. He claimed that BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who was said to have made big strides in his poll campaign, was now falling behind and that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was being listened to as a fresh voice on the scene. Chacko said he had expressed his wish to devote more time to organizational work but the party decided to field him in the election on the basis of the leadership’s observation that good parliamentarians were needed if the party had to sit in the Opposition. Chacko has been representing the Thrissur constituency in central Kerala in the present lok Sabha.
However, he has now shifted from Thrissur, where was facing the ire of “group managers” of the State Congress and that of the Catholic Church, to Chalakkudy, presently represented by KP Dhanapalan of the Congress itself. Dhanapalan would now be contesting from the Thrissur constituency. Chacko claimed that the Congress would put up a sparkling performance in Kerala though it might receive a setback in the national level. At least four pre-poll surveys have predicted brilliant victory for the Congress-led UDF in Kerala. Of the total 20 lok Sabha seats in Kerala, 16 are presently represented by the UDF.
The Congress leadership in Kerala, however, differed with Chacko on the observation. State Congress president VM Sudheeran said he did not expect any Congress leaders to make such confusing and ambiguous statements. Former State party chief Ramesh Chennithala said the Congress was fighting this election with immense confidence.