Congress stares at resource crunch after poll defeats

New Delhi: After losing all the five state Assembly elections, the Congress is now staring at a severe resource crunch as the party’s basket of income generating states has been reducing. The party’s coffers have seen a sharp decline and this has reportedly made it hard for the grand old party to run several of its offices. Left with merely two states in its kitty, it would further make it difficult for the Congress to fight with the well-oiled campaign machinery of the BJP, in the next general elections. To the party’s dismay, the trend of states slipping out of its grip started since it lost power in the 2014 general Assembly elections. Driven to the wall, the party is meanwhile balancing its stature of being a national party on Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It is in place to mention that the grand old party faced an embarrassing shock after it lost Punjab, the only state where it was in power, out of five states which went to polls recently. With Punjab gone from Congress, the grand old party was sized down to an equal footing with AAP. Both AAP and Congress now have two states under its rule, apparently damaging the Congress’ image at the national front, and demoralizing its its leaders.
According to party leaders, the top leadership of the party is “laser focused” on retaining both the states. “Solid steps will be taken to ensure the party members remain energised,” said a Congress leader. The party leaders agree that the coming elections of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh in late 2022 will prove to be a threshold for the party which will firmly set a direction for party leaders and determine the party’s weight of being a principal opposition party in the upcoming general elections. In Gujarat, more importantly, where the BJP is facing anti-incumbency, the Congress has a chance for victory. However, experts believe that if the current leadership crisis in the party continues, the discord in the election-bound states will pop up in one way or the other, which will demotivate the Congress workers and the party will again end up losing elections.
The party, which is on a losing momentum since 2019, needs to claw back and win in states to display its resurrection. The state where the party was presumably strong besides Punjab was Uttarakhand, where the grand old party was in a competitive position, but taking the state for granted, it went on to receive only 19 seats out of 70, and the state was easily retained by the BJP after they won majority 47 seats. If the Congress had won the small state of Goa with only two Lok Sabha constituencies, it could have at least boosted the number of states held by the Congress, but seemingly, due to no clear political hierarchy and constant bickering within its coterie, the party faced a drubbing. Had the party won even a single state, that would have energised its cadre for the upcoming Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections and also set a narrative of “party is re-emerging” for the 2024 general elections, but the Congress ended up empty-handed. The results have also proven that state specific strategies for the party haven’t worked. An expert said, “There is an organic link between the state Assembly elections and the main leadership; the leadership has failed to energise state cadres.”