UP Congress workers demoralized after poll defeat

New Delhi: After the great debacle of the Congress in Uttar Pradesh, the morale of the party workers has gone from bad to worse. According to political observers, high-profile party leaders had made it appear as though there was a Congress wave, but the wave happened opposite to their expectations. The party ironically got reduced three times to 2.33% from its 2017 vote count of around 6%. Before the elections, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had projected herself as a responsible prime face of the party and executioner of strategies in UP. Now, when the party has lost, instead of the blame going to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the reproach has been shifted to the party president, Ajay Kumar Lallu, who was not a frontrunner and whose presence and importance in the party was all along overshadowed by the Gandhis. A political observer said, “This is the scenario where the party workers will question themselves and be dissuaded to work for the party next time; they will be cautious of being blamed for the failure of the top leadership.” The aggressive campaigning of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and the big rallies of the Congress that had a surprising turnout of women had made many presume that this time, the vote count of the party may go up.
Party leaders believe the decision-making was influenced by advisors who were disconnected from the ground workers. “Ground workers could not attract votes,” a political analyst said. Congress functionaries and political observers also affirmed that decisions were taken without consulting the local leaders. A political analyst and a member of a Congress booth committee, both said, “Capable people who were trying to work were not allowed to progress, and ground workers were not given due respect, who in turn were demotivated to pursue tasks.” A Congress voter from UP said, “We don’t vote for the BJP, we never have, we always vote for Congress. But BJP workers even after knowing that, have continued to come to my home and offer me their manifesto and agenda every time before elections. They request us to vote for their party, their workers are active, work hard and have faith in their leadership, but when we see Congress at the same time, it is present only virtually.”
Amod Prakash Singh, a political analyst who has analysed the decline of the Congress in poll-bound states, said, “The Congress leaders in the state were not even in the fight. When BJP lost the last Assembly elections in West Bengal, they lost their seats with close margins. After the results were out, the party leaders were standing with the ground workers telling them we are still in the fight. We saw the decline of Congress in five states and nowhere did the leadership of the Congress come out taking responsibility for the failures, neither did they motivate the ground workers, and tell them that at least they worked sincerely for the party or fought to their best capacity.”