Shivir to discuss price rise, graft...
If the Congress’ core constituency is being eroded because of the Mandal and Ayodhya agitations, reforms have not strengthened it politically if one goes by the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls since 1991. In fact, it has not won a majority on its own in the Lok Sabha since 1984.
“Our numbers will certainly go down in the Lok Sabha this time, but the anti-BJP parties will come together after the election to support us. Moreover, the SP-BSP, the DMK-AIADMK and the Trinamul Congress-Left cannot remain together as one of them in each of these groups will be our potential allies,” said a Congress strategist on the eve of the chintan shivir.
But corruption, price rise, governance and gender violence have put the Congress party and its governments at the Centre and in the states in the dock. The chintan shivir and a one-day AICC meeting here on Sunday will have to come out with convincing positions on these issues.
This session will be different from the Shimla and Panchmarhi sessions in 2003 and 1998 respectively. The Congress is in a different role. It may not fight on different fronts despite being a national party with pan-India appeal if one goes by the results of the UP, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Punjab, Orissa and Goa Assembly polls and byelections in Andhra Pradesh after the agitation for a separate Telangana state weakened the Congress and its government in Andhra Pradesh in the post-YSR period.
The issue of alliances is going to be tricky. The Congress came to power at the Centre in the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections due to strategic pre-poll alliances. But this time the political combinations in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh could be significant.
The Congress would not like to have a pre-poll alliance with either the SP or BSP in UP for obvious reasons but would need partners in Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The chintan shivir would also have to work out a strategy for the coming Assembly elections in Karnataka, Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh.
Post new comment