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The improved prospects of the Congress after Tuesday’s by-polls will come as a shot in the arm for the beleaguered party on the eve of the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly polls. After its disastrous Lok Sabha showing, the Congress managed to pull off victories in several Bharatiya Janata Party bastions.
The party’s outstanding performance in Rajasthan, led by Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s close aide, Sachin Pilot, where the party managed to wrest three of the four seats from the BJP, is being hailed by the party and certainly signals a thumbs-up for its youth brigade.
Pilot, who faced tremendous opposition and was virtually written off when he replaced former chief minister Ashok Gehlot as Pradesh Congress Committee chief and then lost his own Lok Sabha seat, has earned his spurs. Recognition of his new-found status came from another young gun, Milind Deora, on Twitter: “Big shout-out to my friend Sachin Pilot who deserves much of the credit for @INCIndia’s remarkable performance in Rajasthan”. Speaking to reporters, Pilot said a large number of youth voted for the party, one of the main reasons for the “unprecedented victory”.
In the ongoing power struggle within the Congress, the scales could tip favourably for the young brigade after this electoral showing.
In Assam, the Congress retaining one seat despite the open revolt within the party is being perceived as satisfactory performance. Rahul Gandhi’s backing of Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi against rebel Hemanta Biswa Sarma is being interpreted favourably. “Gogoi’s writ will now go unchallenged till the 2016 polls,” said an All-India Congress Committee leader involved in Assam affairs. Rahul Gandhi and his mother, Sonia, Congress spokespersons clarified, had never campaigned for by-elections.
Drawing a blank in Uttar Pradesh again after assembly and Lok Sabha reversals will renew demands for the removal of the Congress state leadership as well as the person in charge at the All India Congress Committee, Madhusudan Mistry, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi. Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee president Nirmal Khatri could be replaced. Mistry’s feeble response was, “Unfortunately, unlike other states, the Congress has no major presence in the assembly here and its grip has been slackening.”
The Congress grabbing three of the nine seats in Modi’s home state of Gujarat from the BJP has come as good news for a party that three months ago did not win a single seat.
“There have been two rounds of Assembly polls after the general elections and overall it’s been good news for secular forces,” spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said. After gains in by-polls in Uttarakhand and then in Bihar, the Congress is seeing its victory in the seven seats as an indication of things to come.
