[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Congress defeat in Delhi by securing just 8 seats in the 70 member assembly from 43 in the 2008 elections will come as a déjà vu for the Congress party here in Nagaland. A “been” there kind of feeling could well have enveloped Congressmen in the state as the Congress too, secured just 8 seats in the 60 member assembly in the polls held earlier this year, in the state.
The poor performance paved the way for the Naga People’s Front to outperform itself, capturing 37 seats.The Congress, which secured eight seats despite a high-pitched campaign that had been kicked-off by party president Sonia Gandhi and included other star campaigners — party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde just didn’t do the trick. The 2008 elections had been closely contested, with the NPF winning 26 seats and the Congress managing 23, but the regional party had seized the lead early as within a couple of hours of the start of counting.More bad news was in store for the Congress as they found themselves one as the second single largest party but short of one number to elect a leader of the opposition. The elusive figure 9 would have ensured the Congress in Nagaland the mandatory 15% required of the total number of seats in the assembly for the opposition to elect its leader for the house. Likewise Sheila’s Congress now stands relegated into third place after BJP and the AAP.
A debacle at the heart of state politics appears to be the art the Congress seems to be perfecting instead of consolidating its position on the anvil of the Lok Sabha elections in the country. At close quarters what happened to the Congress in Delhi could well run as a parallel to the debacle of the Congress party in Nagaland three times in a row. In Delhi, domineering Sheila Dikshit, coupled with a the wave of the Aam Aadmi Party swept away Congress in power for the last two terms.
Fissures in the party, Chief Minister and refusal to acknowledge the rise of AAP led to the ignominious defeat of the Congress that ruled Delhi for 15 long years.In its crushing defeat, the party is also attempting to seriously reflect on what went wrong. Congress workers remember the poor showing by the party in the first Delhi assembly elections of 1993, when the party won only 14 seats.
Party sources admit that they paid little heed this time to the rolling juggernaut -- the Aam Aadmi Party. There are also party men now more willing to admit that there were serious differences between the Delhi unit of the Congress and Dikshit. “AAP has done exceedingly well and it was our mistake that we ignored it. That cost us, we didn’t see it coming,” a senior Congress leader told IANS. What stings is that in Delhi, the Congress is not even in second slot, but has slid to a poor third spot in as many as 43 constituencies. “They (AAP) divided our votes. The analysis is yet to be done, but even voters in unauthorised colonies rejected us,” the leader said.
Unauthorised and resettlement colonies in the capital are considered to be traditional vote-banks of the Congress. With Dikshit blaming the party for not “supporting” her in a three-way battle, it is clear that the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, led by J.P. Agarwal, and Dikshit’s own camp did not quite pull along together.
“She never heard our voice in drawing up the strategy for the polls. Party workers were dejected, it was as if it was not the party fighting the elections, but Dikshit,” said a leader. Agarwal, whose not-so-great rapport with Dikshit has been a cause for concern for the party high command, had several differences with her, but these were kept under wraps during the poll season. “She had her way in distribution of party tickets. Her decision to back sitting MLAs with criminal charges saw many objections, but went through regardless,” a source in the Delhi Congress told IANS.
Of the 70 Congress nominees, 15 had criminal charges against them. Only two of these candidates won. So deep and evident were the divisions in Congress ranks that invitation cards for one election rally did not bear the name of Agarwal. Her planning was also faulted.
“To organise Rahulji’s rally in Ambedkar Nagar, Madam (Dikshit) entrusted the task to a cabinet minister who did not even belong to that constituency. What was she trying to prove,” a party leader said. That rally was poorly attended, and that was a cause of worry. Dikshit had to plead with the crowd - that had begun to walk away - to wait to hear Gandhi. However, another party leader blamed the anti-incumbency factor. “The anti-incumbency wave swept away many good MLAs too. Sheila Dikshit’s governance was not too bad,” the leader added.
