Leader of the Opposition in Chhattisgarh T.S. Singh Deo expects grassroots mobilisation to help the Congress in the upcoming Assembly elections, especially with the exit of party veteran Ajit Jogi.
The Congress has lost the previous three Assembly elections with a narrow margin. In the last election, the margin was less than 1%. What measures the party is taking to bridge this narrow gap?
In the last election, the difference between the BJP and the Congress was merely 0.75% . Such marginal elections can go either way. Keeping this in mind, we have kept our cadres motivated.
You have to remember the Congress is considered a mass-based party instead of cadre-based party.
But this time round, we have slowly been building a dedicated cadre. We are going up to the sub-division level. In fact, we will have at least three Congress representatives per 100 voters by the time we finish the exercise in each of the 90 Assembly constituencies.
Is the Congress open to ally with like-minded parties like the BSP?
The possibilities are there. It is not for me to say anything right now. Theoretically, other than Mr. Jogi’s party, we are open for alliance with other parties. However, our president, Rahul Gandhi, has said the Congress is strong in all the 90 seats and we are ready to fight on them all. We have to wait and watch.
In 2013, a huge number of sitting Congress MLAs lost. Will the party revisit its strategy of giving ticket to its sitting MLAs?
Out of the 35 MLAs whom we repeated, 27 lost. So it is a glaring reality; the Congress should have looked at the anti-incumbency and performance factors of its MLAs. In every meeting,
I have been speaking to my fellow MLAs that I, as the Leader of the Opposition, cannot guarantee a seat for each of them.
They will have to put up with evaluation of their performance. It will not come as a bolt from the blue for them.
Will you have a chief ministerial candidate?
Our president Rahul Gandhi has already stated that we will be fighting under a joint leadership. We would like that the elected members are given their democratic right to choose a leader after the election as is the usual practice.
In face of the recent trend of ‘presidential-style elections, wouldn’t this hurt the Congress electoral fortunes?
A chief ministerial face does not always work to the party’s advantage. If you were to see Karnataka, both the BJP and the Congress had a chief ministerial candidate, but a another party leader went on to hold the post. In 2003, against Ajit Jogi, the BJP did not announce a chief ministerial candidate and they still won. In Himachal Pradesh, the BJP’s CM face, Prem Kumar Dhumal, himself lost. In 2016 in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP did not declare a chief ministerial candidate and yet they won 80% of the votes. A political party takes these strategic decisions based on the ground realities. We are comfortable with a joint leadership which has a healthy representation of all castes and groups. There is no pull and push within our ranks.
The Congress faces an additional challenge from Ajit Jogi’s Janata Congress Party? Would it mean a split in traditional Congress vote?
He has been personally sabotaging the interest of the Congress in the past two elections while being within the party. So we are happy that he is now outside our platform. At least, the voters will no longer have the perception of in-fighting in Congress. Also, the Congress no longer has to shoulder the burden of all the CBI cases Mr. Jogi and his son have been facing.
