The sigh of relief in the Congress party over its poor showing in Uttar Pradesh was loud and audible.
The sigh of relief in the Congress party over its poor showing in Uttar Pradesh was loud and audible. For the last two weeks, all the official spokespersons had clammed up. Even in off-the record briefings they would not hazard a guess about the possible numbers. Yet when the numbers came, chief spokesperson Janardan Dwivedi’s pithy comment, “Yeh toh hona hi tha” said it all.
Few shared the Congress leader Digvijay Singh’s feelings as he said, “I am hurt, disappointed and feel guilty.” For Singh, the triumph of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections proved to be elusive this time, and the party could not do an encore.
At the party headquarters, barring those who were a part of the Uttar Pradesh effort, all the others were apprehensive about the impact a good showing in Uttar Pradesh would have on the internal equations in the party, apart from the emphatic ascendance of Rahul Gandhi.
That there were a lot of issues within the party including resentment over ticket distribution, dissent among other party leaders over the way Rahul-Digvijay combo conducted the election operations and clear unhappiness over the importance given to the “outsiders” like Beni Prasad Verma - gave an impression that the Congress was fighting a war within itself all along last few months.
This was evident by statements and counter statements between Congress leaders and lack of co-ordination. “The fundamentals of the party are weak,” said Rahul Gandhi. But then when he had taken charge he had no reasons to complain. “I was in the forefront, so it was my full responsibility. But our statements did not make an affect on the people as our organisation was not there. Until we set that right, that weakness will not go away,” said Rahul.
Amidst rumours of his resignation from the post of in-charge of UP Digvijay Singh said the mood was clearly in favour of Samajwadi Party as the Congress failed to convince voters about being clear alternative to Mayawati’s government. Digvijay Singh did not accept that the Muslims polarised in favour of SP.
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