Bigger battles ahead for Congress

Several States are going to the polls in 2018, and the party will find it tough to register victories

Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress after winning Shimla Rural.

After losing Himachal Pradesh on Monday, the Congress is now in power only in four States — Punjab, Karnataka, Meghalaya and Mizoram — and the Union Territory of Puducherry. Except Punjab, the other three States are scheduled to go to the polls in 2018.

The Hindi heartland States of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh are going to the polls in the second half of the year.

Some BJP leaders like Kerala BJP chief Kummanam Rajasekharan have described Monday’s results as another step towards a Congress-

mukt (free) India. However, the Congress cited the increase in seats and vote share in Gujarat to argue the opposite.

“We have made the slogan ‘Congress-

mukt Bharat’ fail and decimated it with the people’s support,” said the party’s communication chief, Randeep Surjewala, at a press briefing.

Much at stake

But the Congress has a tough battle ahead as its political revival hinges on success in the next round of Assembly polls. In Karnataka, the party faces the anti-incumbency factor and a resurgent BJP with B.S. Yeddyuruppa, from the powerful Lingayat community, already being declared its chief ministerial candidate. The Janata Dal(S), led by H.D. Kumaraswamy, is likely to make it a multi-cornered contest.

In Rajasthan, the party will have to take a call on whether or not it wants to project a chief ministerial candidate. While Sachin Pilot has led the party for over three years now, veteran Ashok Gehlot is back in the reckoning after he oversaw an effective Congress campaign in Gujarat.

The leadership question is yet to be settled in Madhya Pradesh as well, where the Congress is divided into factions owing allegiance to different leaders.

Array of heavyweights

From young Jyotiraditya Scindia to veteran Kamal Nath and former Chief Minister Digvijaya Singh, the presence of too many heavyweight leaders calls for a fine balancing act.

In Chhattisgarh, where former Congress leader Ajit Jogi had formed the government after the State was carved out of Madhya Pradesh, the party does not have any leader to match the stature of Chief Minister Raman Singh.

And finally in the northeast, the departure of Himanta Biswa Sarma, the Congress leader who switched over to the BJP, would weigh heavily against the party.