Mandate was for Congress in 3 states

Let’s talk about Punjab, where the Congress won by a landslide. It is perhaps the first time in the last 25 years that such a massive mandate has come to any party in the state. It was Congress vicepresident Rahul Gandhi who had extensively campaigned in Punjab. He was instrumental in getting Navjot Singh Sidhu on board. In fact, pretty early in the fight for Punjab, the Congress appointed Capt. Amarinder Singh as state unit chief. This was a wise call, and so this model was a success.

No doubt the election results in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are a setback. We strived and hoped to do better; unfortunately, our performance was nothing to write home about. But apportioning blame to Mr Gandhi is certainly not done. In the last couple of days there is a hatchet job, which is being done against Mr Gandhi. In fact, he had “structural changes” are needed in the Congress.

In Uttarakhand, the government changes every term. We were in power, but we will bounce back. If you look at UP, we were in the process of strengthening our party and were in alliance. We have been out of power in the state for almost 27 years now. So the alliance lost. Yes, we could have done better.

If you look at Goa, there was the might of the BJP and defence minister Manohar Parrikar, who has now been sworn in as chief minister, but the Congress managed to be the single-largest party with a sizeable difference from the BJP. The BJP swooped in biggies with all resources at their command and formed the government in the state. Everybody in the state knows the mandate this time was for the Congress, and certainly not for the BJP.

In Manipur too, our chief minister was seeking a third term. In spite of anti-incumbency, which is natural for any government that has stayed in power for 15 years, the Congress is the single largest party. Again, by machinations of the BJP, they have formed the government. It is once again obvious that the mandate to govern is with the Congress and not with the BJP.

It is with a very heavy heart that I have to say the governments in Manipur and Goa are unconstitutional. The governor’s role in both states is highly questionable. Even eminent jurists have started saying this. So the BJP model is: if they cannot win elections, criticise the Congress leadership and get a backdoor entry by misusing the governor’s office.

Many naysayers have been writing off the Congress for far too long now. It was Indira Gandhi who bounced back then, it was our president Sonia Gandhiji under whom the Congress came back in 2004 when nobody was expecting it to come back. This year there are several other elections lined up, we will see then. The civic polls in Delhi are also around the corner. A word to people who are counting us and our leadership out, they will have to wait. We as an organisation are here to stay. The writer is AICC secretary in charge of the legal and human rights cell