The Hindu : Congress meet cancelled

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 02, 2003

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Congress meet cancelled

By Manas Dasgupta

GANDHINAGAR Jan. 1. A meeting of the defeated candidates of the Congress in Gujarat tomorrow to analyse the causes for the party's rout in the just-concluded Assembly elections has been cancelled by the Pradesh Congress Committee.

Ostensibly, the reason for the cancellation of the meet at Mehmdabad in Kaira district has been given as the pending elections for the Surat West seat, which was countermanded due to the death of the BJP candidate and has been re-scheduled for January 9. But party insiders admit that the actual reason could be the apprehension of groupism coming to the fore at the meeting.

The outcome of the election for the Surat West seat would make no difference to the Congress which has only 51 seats in the 182-member House, but trading of charges could further weaken the party in the State.

Even while the "Hindutva'' factor is believed to have played the most important role in the BJP's massive victory in the elections, many of the defeated Congress candidates maintained that groupism within the party and lack of co-ordination was as much responsible for their defeat.

The "original'' Congressmen viewed the elections as a contest between the BJP and Shankarsinh Waghela, the newly-appointed State party president, even though at every stage he sought to give due importance to his predecessor, Amarsinh Chaudhary, who belonged to the "original'' Congress. But most of the other senior leaders belonging to the group were aloof and served only the regional interests instead of taking up the party's cause.

Even the Congress Chief Ministers of some States who were sent by the party to campaign in Gujarat were also victims of the lack of coordination in the party. Some partymen who coordinated the public meetings of the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, Ajit Jogi, pointed out that at many places Mr. Jogi was shocked to find that no intimation about his meeting had reached the local people. The meetings were planned nearly a week in advance and yet at many places Mr. Jogi addressed only those tribals who had converged to see his helicopter. Enquiries with the local Congressmen revealed that they were not aware of Mr. Jogi's meetings. The same was the case with several other Chief Ministers who were asked to address the rural masses.

Mr. Waghela's appointment as the State unit president seemed to have rejuvenated the party, but apparently it was confined to the urban areas. Nor was the distrust between the Congressmen and Mr. Waghela's erstwhile Rashtriya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Gujarat) group workers removed.

The "original'' Congressmen did not work dedicatedly in the constituencies where the erstwhile RJP and the JD(G) candidates were contesting on the Congress ticket.

The result was that only four of the 33 RJP and three of the 29 JD(G) candidates were successful at the hustings.

The defeated candidates also point out that if the "Hindu'' card contributed to the BJP's victory, why was it that `Hindutva' stopped at the boundary of the major Hindu religious centres in the State from where the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, had started or ended his `gaurav rath yatra.'

Incidentally, the BJP was defeated in Somnath and Dwarka, the two famous Hindu religious centres in the State. The other famous pilgrim spot of Ambaji, which formed part of the Danta Assembly seat, and Khedbrahma known as `nana Ambaji' also fell to the Congress.

So was the State capital, Gandhinagar, where the terrorist attack on the Akshardham temple complex gave a push to Mr. Modi's "safety to Hindus'' rhetoric. Another important pilgrim centre, Unnai, known nation-wide for its hot water springs and from where Mr. Modi had launched the second leg of his rath yatra, also went to the Congress.

Mr. Modi had made the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's speech in Porbandar of "Godse's Gujarat'', the main plank of attack against the Congress, but yet, he could not convince the Porbandar voters.

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