Experts say the blame game in the state unit is set to intensify.
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New Delhi: The Congress in Punjab is decimated to a level from where analysts feel it is difficult for the party to make a comeback. Many former ministers have come out in the open and said that the Congress High Command and decision-making units entirely mismanaged the Punjab elections. The blame game among the top leadership is set to intensify with dissenting leaders adding to the noise. Experts believe that the coming two months will witness more discord as there will be more shortcomings surfacing within the state unit.
The party’s frustration has emerged due to its solid expectations from the state, as its internal surveys had earlier shown it that it will get a majority or at least it will get to form a coalition government. A Congress leader wishing anonymity said, “We were deceived as all through the campaign up until virtually the last moment, we were certain that the Congress will win. On the day of results, at around 5 pm, Harish Chowdhary made us clap and said the party was winning. And the same top leaders who were backing one another are now accusing each other of being responsible for the party miserable performance in the state, which shows they were never together.”
The party suffered a humongous loss of 59 seats from where it stood in the 2017 Assembly poll winning 77 seats. Disturbed party leaders are also discomforted with the surfacing of allegations of under-the-counter distribution of tickets by Harish Chowdhary and two others. In a recent meeting, Punjab MP Jasbir Gill had reportedly revolted against Chowdhary in front of Sonia Gandhi for ticket auctioning. The unwise ticket distribution has reflected in the steep downfall in the seat count as it could win only 18. To gauge its fading familiarity in the state, the party could not save its deposits on 32 seats out of 117. There is also resentment in the party for not giving tickets to veteran leaders like Ajaib Singh Bhatti, Amrik Singh Dhillon, Jagmohan Singh Kang, and Kewal Singh Dhillon.
Within the political circles of the party, there are whispers about Navjot Singh Sidhu being an opportunist. “Sidhu has suffered a massive loss of face,” said a party leader. Political observers believe that Sidhu impeded the momentum of the party which was trying to collect itself and overcome from the anti-incumbency factor. However, poll strategists believe that the one reason that led to the party’s downfall was “no clear vision”—the party could not manage its lower rung rebel leaders who were persistently poached by AAP and thus their support base had been directly chimed to AAP.
According to a source, “The party was in disarray since the formation of booth committees; there was no unity within its members, everyone wanted to take a crumb forcibly by keeping all the deserving hungry.” Ashutosh Kumar, a noted political analyst in Punjab, said, “The Congress will have a lot of churning, but the point is, churning comes from the top; interestingly, there is a churning going on at the top as well. The Gandhi family has lost its legitimacy, they must be knowing that they don’t have a moral position, they have a lot of problems because of the big jolt Punjab has given them. Now the changes will come from within the state unit; right now, everyone is demoralized and everyone is taking shots at others.”