Gujarat and Himachal Elections Ring the Death Knell for Congress
As the Congress party is almost dead today, it will be an uphill (or impossible) task for the new President Rahul Gandhi to revive the party for the Lok Sabha election to be held in 2019.
By Rakesh Raman
The results of Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh show that there is no political party in India that can challenge the dominance of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi.
According to the trends and results declared so far today, BJP is all set to win the 182-member Gujarat Assembly election while Congress will stay as a distant loser in the race.
The performance of BJP is even better in Himachal Pradesh where it is going to form the government after trouncing Congress in the 68-member Assembly.
These results further show lack of political acumen in Congress which has now selected Rahul Gandhi as its new President.
[ Can New President Rahul Gandhi Save the Dying Congress Party? ]
The full results for both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections are expected to be declared by the evening today.
While Rahul Gandhi kept crowing about Modi’s decisions on demonetization and Goods and Services Tax (GST) in his election speeches, these were actually non-issues.
Rahul Gandhi also talked about Modi government’s failure to provide jobs in the election states as well as in the country, but the voters rejected that rhetoric also.
As the Congress party does not understand the content subtleties, its messaging as well as message delivery is totally flawed. Even its press notes are issued with plenty of language mistakes. And the people who hold the party’s daily press briefings fumble and flounder in their interactions.
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The trouble with Congress party is that it does not have any leader who has any direct connect with the masses. Most Congress leaders are rich while almost all voters are poor who see hope in the promises of Modi who says he belonged to a poor, struggling family.
The Congress party is also facing intellectual bankruptcy as it does not have any vision for the country; all its political strategies are based only on Modi’s criticism. The traditional party does not have any original plan to save people from the persisting misery.
As the Congress party is almost dead today, it will be an uphill (or impossible) task for the new President Rahul Gandhi to revive the party for the Lok Sabha election to be held in 2019.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. Besides working at senior editorial positions with leading media companies, he was writing an exclusive edit-page tech business column (named Technophile) regularly for The Financial Express (a daily business newspaper of The Indian Express Group).
Earlier, he had been associated with the United Nations (UN) through United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a digital media expert to help businesses use technology for brand marketing and business development. He also runs a free school for deserving children under his NGO – RMN Foundation.
Photo courtesy: Congress
