After poll debacle, Ashok Chavan, Naryane Rane to take over Maharashtra Congress?

After a humiliating defeat in the assembly elections in Maharashtra, which followed the dismal performance of the party in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress is all set for a revamp in the state. According to a Times of India report, Congress plans to change the party leadership in the state and two names doing the rounds are Ashok Chavan and Narayan Rane. Both have been former chief ministers in the state.

The report also adds that the head of the Mumbai unit of Congress JC Chandurkar is likely to be replaced by a younger candidate and some of the top names on the list are ‘Sanjay Nirupam, Priya Dutt and Varsha Gaikwad;.

So why is Ashok Chavan back in contention, despite his alleged role in the Adarsh scam? According the report, which quotes party sources, victories in ‘Chavan’s home turf of Nanded despite rallies by PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah’ are being seen as the main reason for new found faith in Chavan.

The report adds that there is considerable anger within the current Congress leadership in the state and that some of them have blamed Manikrao Thakre and his general secretary in-charge Mohan Prakash for the loss in Maharashtra.

Firstpost columnist Saroj Nagi had noted in this piece, that where the loss in Maharashtra was concerned, Congress can’t just blame incumbency. Lacklustre leadership in the state and centre was something that has already got to the candidates.

She had pointed out that most of the Congress candidates in the state were not too keen on getting Rahul Gandhi to campaign for them — a worrying sign since they clearly felt that his presence would not add any value to the electoral process.

She pointed out “critical question for the Congress is does it have the strength to claw back into reckoning. The signal so far is in the negative”.

Nagi wrote, “The dismal showing shows up the Congress top leadership as weak and ineffectual, incapable of taking risks, bold decisions and paralysed by the Modi syndrome. Evidence on the ground suggests there has been no urgent remedial action… The party had enough time to introspect before the Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections but it was doing nothing. The top leadership, Sonia and Rahul, had virtually resigned to the fait accompli.”

Moreover, the Maharashtra Congress saw it’s fair amount of defectors in this election as well. The leadership both in the state and the national level were virtually unable to control the fall of the party.

As Firstpost’s Sanjeev Singh had pointed out , one major defector was former Congress stalwart Datta Meghe’s son Samir, who switched to BJP and won. Others like minister Sanjay Deotale weren’t too lucky as they lost this time around but still their defection showed the lack of faith in the party’s electoral prospects.

Singh also noted, “Apart from the 15 year anti-incumbency, it was also the lack of inspiring leadership in the state that led to the party losing many potential candidates across the state.”

Clearly in Maharashtra, more than anti-incumbency, it was the uninspiring state and central leadership, which made things worse.  In case the Congress does revamp and go ahead with Chavan or Rane as the new state leaders, it would mean that the central leadership is ready to take some tough political decisions and has learnt the lesson from its 2014 losses.