Saturday, July 21, 2012

The Pioneer-Dilli Billi - July.22nd.2012 -"IT'S A ROUGH RIDE FOR THE CONGRESS"

"IT'S A ROUGH RIDE FOR THE CONGRESS"

After the Assembly Elections in Uttar Pradesh the Congress has been going through a bad phase. Its leaders are lacking grit & will to win. The constant infighting is adding to the woes.

These are testing times for the Congress. The party’s PR department had been working overtime and gearing up for the Presidential election proving that the party was feeling insecure. In this day and age, to be secretive in politics can be damaging especially if you are running a Government with allies. My point is if a man of Pranab Mukherjee’s stature is the Presidential candidate, there should be no controversy involved.

The Congress has been going through rough patches recently, moreso after the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. It is not only the outsiders but even the Congress partymen are worried. As the Assembly elections approach in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, it is a testing time for the Congress High Command as far as decisions, leadership and strategies are concerned.

It is a known fact that a weak High Command leads to groupism and infighting within the party. Every leader thinks he is chief ministerial candidate. The Central leaders from these States, who have easy access to the High Command, feel they know what the top brass wants. The grassroots level worker is praying that there is no repeat of UP and Bihar in these two States as well.

Hopefully, the Congress has learnt its lesson and the mistakes will not be repeated.

But what happened in Punjab? Candidates were announced by the High Command keeping in mind their loyalty rather than winnability in the State. The voter today is smart and wants a leader who is accessible, helpful and works for the betterment of the society. He wants to vote for a person who is not corrupt and can help fulfill his needs. And his needs are simple — roti, kapda, makaan, sadak, bijli and paani.

Due to rampant corruption in the country, the common man feels why he shouldn’t take advantage of the situation during elections. Taking money from all political parties and casting vote in favour of the party from where he will get maximum benefit has become common place.

Unfortunately in Gujarat the Congress has no chance because of the infighting. And to top it all, the names of the candidates are still to be selected. There are rumours and reports that some of the Congressmen are hand in glove with the BJP. It is also said that for the local Congress leaders who forms the Government is not important. Sadly, it is the grassroots worker who is the sufferer. The State unit Congress leaders lack the grit, passion and the will to fight. They have become lazy and mostly depend upon the anti-incumbency factor to win. And if don’t win, it has become easy for them to blame their senior leaders.

It is difficult for such leaders to stop the infighting and mudslinging at each other and instead fight together to win the election. The High Command needs to step in, announce the leader and stop all the fighting. As it is the UPA Government is not very popular. If the Congress loses another election surely it is harbinger of bad days ahead.

It is very sad that at the end of the day, it is the hard working grassroots worker who will pay a price for the inaction and inactivity of its top leader.

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