Spotlight
New Delhi, 13 September 2019
Maharashtra Polls
CONG’ BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL
By Sagarneel Sinha
Nothing seems to go
well for the Congress. Ever since its poor performance and major loss in the
recent General election, the party remains in the news, but not for any good
reasons. One of these, rather the main, is the spree of desertions and
resignations of its leaders in various States. Maharashtra happens to among these,
which is slated to go to Assembly polls along with Haryana and Jharkhand.
Recently, taking a
dig at the Congress, BJP President and Home Minister Amit Shah said its leaders
are making a beeline to join the BJP and if the party opens the doors for these
leaders, only Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan would be left in the grand
old party!
Given the spree of
desertions and resignations that the party is witnessing in the State, the
present scenario only gives credence to Shah’s words. The recent leaders to
quit the party are former Congress Mumbai chief, Kripasankar Singh, and former Cabinet
minister, Harshvardhan Patil and cross over the fence to the BJP. The list of
resignations also includes former Bollywood actress Urmila Matondkar, who had joined
the party in the presence of Rahul Gandhi just before the Lok Sabha elections, hitting
headlines and being given a ticket from Mumbai North seat, where she had to
bite the dust.
Although Urmila hasn’t
given any hints about her next political venture, she has cited petty in-house
politics for calling it a day in the Congress. It is worth recalling that it was
new entrants like Urmila, with no political skills and managing to get tickets,
which peeved Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi. She was hoping for a
party ticket from Mumbai, but having failed chose to quit and join the Shiv
Sena in the midst of that poll campaign. So, resignations such as that of
Urmila’s, which doesn’t have much political significance, but helps the party get
some limelight, shows the party is unable to put its house in order in
Maharashtra, just like other States after the drubbing it got.
With Assembly
elections drawing closer, such resignations only add to the voters’ observation
that the Congress may just as well fail to secure enough seats to become the
largest Opposition party, forget its capacity to defeat BJP alliance. According
to reports, Congress and Sharad Pawar’s NCP are going to contest 123-125 seats
each in the 289-member House, leaving the rest to its allies. In the previous Assembly
polls, the two had contested independently and the Congress barely managed to bag
the main Opposition party status by winning 42 seats -- one more than the NCP.
Importantly, Congress with 18% votes was ahead of NCP with only 0.8% votes.
This year, however, Congress managed to get only a lone seat in the Lok sabha
election, whereas ally NCP managed to bag at least 4 seats.
Apparently, this is
one of the biggest electoral jolts that the Congress received after many years
in the State. Remember that Maharashtra was once its strongest citadel, where
the party ruled beginning the creation of the State in 1960 to 2014, barring
the six years in between the period of 1978-80 and 1995-99.
In the present crisis
of poor performance and nagging uncertainty of electing a new Party president,
the Congress is now no longer giving any hope of a political future to both its
cadres and leaders, who left with few options of survival are abandoning the
‘sinking ship’. The current State leadership including Prithviraj Chavan and Ashok
Chavan, both former Chief Ministers are no longer seen as powerful contenders
to wrest its previous citadel from the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, led by Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis. The BJP buoyed by its performance in the General elections and
also in Maharashtra, along with its ally, is banking on a big mandate, which
will also be crucial for the party to gain more Rajya Sabha seats from the State.
On the other hand, for
the Congress the risk is doubled -- if it performs badly in these elections, not
only shall it lose the status of the main Opposition party in the State but would
negate any chance to send MPs to the Upper House based on its own strength.
This will further impact the party’s standing in national politics and perhaps
the fear forced it to have an alliance with the NCP, unlike in 2014.
At the same time, this
doesn’t seem to remove the fears of the beleaguered party as partner NCP too is
facing a spree of desertions. Its legislators, Sandeep Naik, Shivendrasinh
Bhosale and Vaibhav Pichad, and State women wing president Chitra Wagh, joined
the BJP. Plus, last month, its Mumbai unit president Sachin Ahir and Shahapur
MLA Pandurang Barora joined the Shiv Sena. Further, Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit
Bahujan Aghadi’s (VBA) refusal to join the Opposition alliance by placing
unrealistic demands, is also likely to help the NDA coalition.
Given the current
situation of the Congress across the country, the Maharashtra polls are very critical,
more so as the grand old party has lost the main Opposition status in States
like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal and regaining it in near future appears
to be a no-go. If that was not enough, the party has also lost the tag of main
opposition in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and in Telangana. So, that leaves only Maharashtra,
and it may find itself nipped by the NCP this time.
If this happens, this
would be yet another nail in the Congress coffin, in not only national but State
politics. It has over a period of time lost out the main opposition tag to the
RJD in Bihar, the BJP in West Bengal, the Samjawadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, the
TDP in Andhra Pradesh, the AIMIM in Telangana (AIMIM), etc. Data shows once
relegated to third or fourth position, the Congress has bleak chances of making
a comeback. And now, instead of taking on the BJP-Shiv Sena challenge, will it
end up battling its partner, the NCP, behind the scenes, is a troublesome
question? Predictably, all eyes are on Maharashtra as the grand old party would
need to do more than just keep its fingers crossed.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
|