Is Congress’ hawabaazi reason behind its poll debacle in Gujarat?

Yogendra Yadav said that it was the Congress' "hawabaazi" that caused the party's defeat in the Gujarat Assembly elections.

New Delhi, Dec 18: The Congress camp which carried out one of its finest and well-calculated campaigns during the Gujarat Assembly elections 2017 in the recent times must be feeling really dejected for failing to ouster the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its citadel.

Why does the Congress fail to reach the magic mark of 92 seats in the 182-member Gujarat Legislative Assembly? As per the latest report on counting for the Gujarat polls, the Congress is likely to get 81 seats in the state (already the Congress has won 76 seats and leading in five more).

The ruling BJP is likely to be restricted to 98 seats (already the BJP has won 96 seats and leading in two more). Looking at the numbers, the Congress which had won only 61 seats in the 2012 elections has fared really well, but still short of more than 10 seats to cross the victory margin.

The BJP, on its part, has performed badly compared to 2012 when it got 115 seats. The saffron party too needs to put on its thinking cap before celebrations of a victory that is far from its dream target of 150 seats as envisioned by its president Amit Shah before the polls.

Nonetheless, as Union minister Smriti Irani has said "Jo Jeet Wohi Sikander (he who wins, is the king)", Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the "king" of India.

According to psephologist and political activist Yogendra Yadav, the Congress should learn three lessons from the Gujarat defeat.

"The Congress cannot substitute organisational strength of the BJP at grassroots level with its last minute hawabaazi (empty talk)," Yadav told CNN-News18 on massive Congress campaigning in the past few months in Gujarat.

He added, "The party must understand it cannot borrow other people's movements. It cannot piggyback on the OBC or Dalit leaders' agitations and popularity and hope to win."

"The Congress cannot battle the kind of naked communalism unleashed by the BJP with the sort of surreptitious casteism it tried to use", Yadav, stated.

Thus next time, the Congress needs to put up a stronger and better strategy to counter the BJP in elections.

OneIndia News