It’s downhill journey for Congress in Jharkhand

RANCHI: From 14 MLAs to six, Congress could not have bargained for a worse deal in Jharkhand assembly polls. Decimated and down, the grand old party has now been relegated to the backburner of state politics.
Despite Congress president Sonia Gandhi (addressed three rallies) and vice-president Rahul Gandhi (addressed nine rallies) campaigning in the state, the party could not counter the perceived Narendra Modi wave and finished fourth, in terms of seats won, behind BJP, JMM and JVM (P).Manoj Kumar Yadav (Barhi), Nirmala Devi (Barkagaon), Irfan Ansari (Jamtara), Badal (Jarmundi), Alamgir Alam (Pakur) and Bidesh Singh (Panki) proved to be the saving grace for the party.
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Considering that the ‘Hand’ party was sharing power alongside JMM and RJD since July 2013, the poll result must have added salt to the injuries it suffered in the Lok Sabha as well as Maharashtra and Haryana polls earlier this year. Party bigwigs including state unit president Sukhdeo Bhagat (Lohardaga) and ministers Mannan Mallick (Dhanbad), Rajendra Prasad Singh (Bermo), K N Tripathy (Daltonganj), Banna Gupta (Jamshedpur-West) and Geetashree Oraon (Sisai) did not help the Congress cause by losing.
Party insiders attributed the rout to bad selection of candidates, lack of coordination, insufficient funding, dispirited campaigning and ineffective leadership. “We were not well prepared to fight the elections,” pointed out party leader Ajay Rai. “We were trying to have a pre-poll alliance with JMM, but that did not work at the eleventh hour. This affected our preparations and we did not have proper candidates at some places,” Rai said. “We went ahead with RJD and JD (U), but the coalition did not have the desired level of coordination, leading to duplication of candidates in some seats. The ‘friendly fights’ adversely hit our prospects,” he explained. For the record, Congress put up candidates in 62 seats, while RJD and JD (U) had nominees in 22 and eight seats respectively.
Incidentally, the party, which was a strong force in erstwhile Bihar in the 1970s and 1980s, has over the decades lost its support base in the region. In the 81-member Jharkhand House, it had eight members in 2004. In 2009, its tally increased to 14, thanks to its pact with Babulal Marandi-led JVM (P), only to dip to six this time.
READ ALSO: JVM-P down but not out
“We could have done much better had we contested the elections as a party. Candidates fought on their own strength,” a senior party leader opined. “BJP and JMM were on poll mode for at least a year, but our campaign never gained momentum. Sonia and Rahul could have come earlier and galvanised the party apparatus, which was not in a good shape, but their rallies was like ‘too little, too late’,” the leader noted. Few other senior national leaders showed up, with Jairam Ramesh conspicuous by his absence.
Some party leaders have started blaming the Sukhdeo Bhagat and Subodh Kant Sahay (who was state election campaign chief) for the defeat.
The Congress, despite another poll debacle, put up a good show in the tribal heartland even after snapping ties with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
The Congress won three of the 18 assembly seats in Santhal Pargana. Badal Patralekh (Jarmundi), Alamgir Alam (Pakur) and Irfan Ansari (Jamtara) are the Congress’s winning horses. It is Irfan’s maiden win in the electoral politics who defeated JMM’s two-time MLA Vishnu Bhaiya.
(With inputs from Rajesh Kumar Pandey in Dumka)