Razed in Madhya Pradesh civic polls, Congress is now just a house of disarray

New Delhi: The humbling in Madhya Pradesh civic polls suggests that the Congress seemed to have got both the script and the plot completely wrong. While the party focused on disrupting Parliament proceedings and staging noisy protest both in Parliament premises and outside for a fortnight, the BJP slogged it out in the Madhya Pradesh civic polls seeking a renewed and fresh lease of life for the embattled Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.[caption id=“attachment_2397530” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Moving on a directionless path. AFP[/caption] The Vyapam scam in the wake of a series of controversial deaths had come as a good opportunity for the Congress, which was ousted from power in the central Indian state in 2003. But the opposition party both in the Centre and in Madhya Pradesh could not make use of the same. “Essentially, politics is organisational contests… but Congress by default or otherwise chose the negativity. They have been punished for the campaign of character assassination against a popular chief minister,” says BJP leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe. Even a few Congress leaders on the condition of anonymity seem to endorse this saying, “Our real challenge is not media mileage or one-upmanship in Parliament. It’s the need to prepare our cadres for electoral battle.” Prahlad Kumar Pandey, an AAP leader in the state, also spoke on similar vein and practically summed up the paradox. “BJP won because there is no opposition in Madhya Pradesh.” In effect very few Congress leaders would be able to deny this as party bosses rarely campaigned for the crucial civic polls with most of them concentrating on their attendance either in Delhi protests alongside Sonia Gandhi-Rahul Gandhi duo or for discussions in the TV studios. Finally in the electoral hustings, BJP walked away with the prized victory in 16 municipalities – in fact wresting some of them from Congress control. “Our victory is more satisfying as we could wrest Muraina, Harda, Bhainsdehi, Suwasra, Kotar, Chakghat from Congress. Muraina municipality was formerly occupied by the Congress. It was the first election after the formation of municipal corporation. The people of Muraina have also expressed their confidence to BJP. BJP’s historic victory has been achieved in first time formed Muraina Municipal Corporation and Ujjain Municipal Corporation,” says BJP Madhya Pradesh unit chief Nandkumar Singh Chauhan. For Congress, it would be certainly the wake up call to pull up sleeves and reboot the party strategy. “The Monsoon Session of Parliament was allowed to be washed away. BJP will now even steal away the credit of GST which was once our project. The Rajya Sabha recorded nearly 9 percent work while Lok Sabha logged about 48 percent. Our MPs got suspended and we also lost the Madhya Pradesh civic polls miserably,” a Congress leader admitted to Firstpost rather helplessly. While BJP is upbeat with its win, the Congress needs to reorganise the party at the block and district level particularly in states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. But few outsiders believe it can come easily. “Sonia Gandhi’s biggest challenge comes in making Rahul Gandhi accountable and perform. She remains a dotting mother and at the same she has not allowed emergence of state leaders. This caused her lose control in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh were also miserably handled,” says BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, who quit Congress in 2014. Many NCP leaders, who were part of the Congress before, felt that although Sonia in the last 17 years as party president navigated the unit through challenges posed by BJP and Sangh Parivar besides the revolt led by Sharad Pawar, the Congress has so far been unable to set “any example” of delivering. “Most schemes including NREGA launched by Congress turned out to be factors to decide about Congress non-performance for decades,” one of them said. On the other hand, cornered over Vyapam scam, Shivraj himself took over the role of overseeing the campaigning. He even brought out a booklet listing out Congress lapses and follies vis-a-vis the scam and how his government had actually played the role of a ‘whistle blower’. “Moreover, the victim card played by Shivraj that Congress under the tutelage of Digvijaya Singh and Jyotiraditya Scindia - both from ruling family background - was intolerant of commoner like him (Shivraj) went in BJP’s favour,” says BJP leader Nandkumar Chauhan. Congress leaders on the contrary could not relate their vigorous campaign in Parliament against Shivraj to the civic polls in the state. No protest was Madhya Pradesh focused and the cadres were hardly involved. “Moreover, Sushma Swaraj tirade against Congress vis-a-vis Bhopal gas tragedy and Warren Anderson going scot-free only revived old memories and thus might have influenced a section of voters,” says a BJP leader. Besides organisational lapses, infighting and leadership crisis remain permanent problem for Congress. “While since 2005, Shivraj Singh even after emergence of Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo remains tallest leader in the state BJP unit, on its part Congress has none,” says AAP leader Prahlad Kumar Pandey. Sonia’s political journey had reached a high point when she walked into Ram Vilas Paswan in 2002 for floating the UPA. But in the last few years, Congress has lost allies. However, thanks to the compulsion among non-Congress, non-BJP parties – like JD(U) and Trinamool Congress – all of them again inched closer to Congress to oppose Land Bill and also backed Congress when 25 MPs were suspended. But the good plot was “again lost” when Congress remained sanguine and did not listen to the counseling of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. BJP leaders Babul Supriyo and Arun Jaitley felt that there is a ground swell of anger gradually building up against ‘disruption-politics’ of Congress. “Our agenda has been development and Congress single point agenda is anti-Modi. Voters of 2015 do not go by the sloganeering of 1970s. They want performance and need concrete things at hands,” says Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. The Left leaders say in private, it’s high time Congress put its house in order both in terms of handling of ego-clash and infighting among key leaders. BJP has Sanghparivar cadres to bank upon through thick and thin, on the other hand, when was the last time Congress leaders spoke of their workers and activities in the Seva Dal?