As results trickled in from all the five states where elections were held, the Gandhis watched in dismay. But in Delhi, not too far away from where they sat, some members of the so-called “G23″ shook their heads and said, “The more things change, the more they remain the same.”
After the last round of state polls when the Congress had delivered a duck, Kapil Sibal was the first to speak out and asked for introspection within the party. That it never happened, is reflected in the present results where the Congress has lost out even in states where it had expected to do well, like Uttarakhand and Goa.
This time too, many within the G23, or group of 23 dissenters, are planning to speak out. Some like Manish Tewari and Kapil Sibal, who despite being from Punjab were left out during the poll planning process, are expected to ask some questions to the Gandhis. On target are those who were part of the inner coterie, like KC Venugopal, Harish Chaudhary, Ajay Maken, and Randeep Surjewala. “There is a harem which is running the show. They are incapable of winning and they stop the chances of winning for the party,” said one of the dissenters.
Have a look at the takeaways from the results:
• The Congress’s vote share in Punjab has declined massively from 38.5% in 2017 to 23.3% in 2022.
• From the single largest party in 2017, the Congress has become a distant second in Goa and Manipur. In both states, the party’s vote share has declined.
• The Congress’s vote share in Manipur has also halved from 35.1% in 2017 to 17% in 2022.
• An alliance with the Congress is disastrous for parties. The GFP won 3 seats in 2017. It’s now winning just one after tying up with the Congress.
• Consistent trend of Congress governments failing to get re-elected.
• No Congress government has got re-elected in a big state since Assam in 2011.
• Punjab has become another case of Congress incumbent governments failing to get re-elected and facing miserable defeats.
• After Delhi, now Punjab has become the second state where the Congress’s decline has led to AAP’s rise.
•And the worst part is that in the erstwhile family bastions of Amethi and Raebareli, the Congress has scored a zero.
A loss of face for the Gandhis clearly. But chances are that they will get away as the inner group will rush in to defend them, saying that they don’t influence state polls. But it’s not entirely true. In the case of Punjab, it was the Gandhi siblings who had made up their mind on ousting Captain Amarinder Singh. Just three months before the polls, they had played the Dalit card and chosen Charanjit Singh Channi as the chief ministerial face. The manner in which the Captain was removed and Navjot Singh Sidhu was appointed the state unit chief added to the already fragile Congress’s problems. Infighting and threats became the hallmark of the party even as AAP was pushing for a major fight.
It will become difficult for the Gandhis now to talk of any leadership change in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Their aura and awe have been dented further. The loss has been more for Priyanka Gandhi Vadra whose foray into active politics for the first time has not matched the eyeballs she grabbed during her high voltage campaign with results. Will she actually stay back in UP for 2024 as she has promised?
With inputs from News18
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